
I 'ILBEMM'S 





ClassEMAVl 
fook_iH-3 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



c 



ELEMENTS 



LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 



USE OF STUDENTS 



LANGUAGE, LAW, MEDICINE, ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, 

AND THE SCIENCES GENEEALLY IN WHICH 

LATIN WORDS AEE USED. 

A/" 

BY Sf ST HALDEMAN, A. M., 

PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OP PENNSYLVANIA. 



•44622!} 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 



1JJX 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Penn- 
sylvania. 










\ 






\ 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



VELUT DEPOSITUM REDDANT LEGENTIBUS : ITAQUE ID EXPRI- 
MERE DEBENT, QUOD DICTURI SUMUS. — QUINCT. INST. OR. I. VII. 

The use of letters is to preserve vocal sounds, and, as it were, return the 
deposit to the reader : therefore they should express what we have to say. 

In making some inquiries into the phonetic peculiarities of the 
aboriginal languages of North America, I found myself at a loss, 
from the want of an alphabet in which to record my results, those 
of Europe being more or less corrupt ; and finding the statements 
respecting the Latin alphabet to a certain extent contradictory and 
unsatisfactory, I resolved to investigate it, with the intention of 
using it strictly according to its Latin signification, as far as this 
could be ascertained. This special inquiry being made, a view of 
the results is here presented. 

Pronunciation is the basis of philology, and without a know- 
ledge of it, in examining the various writings likely to be used for 
philological purposes, little progress can be made in this science. 
It is of little use to show a person unacquainted with Arabic and 
Greek characters, that himistry is derived from \_^ _^g» and not 
from yow ; or to inform a pupil that the South English word plow, 
is derived from a North English word, written [plough] with six 
characters, if he does not know what words these characters are 
intended to represent. 

If the learner has better success in Latin words, it may arise 



4 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

from an acquaintance with many of the characters, as p, F, b, d, 
l, T, if they happen to be used in writing his vernacular ; but he 
may be deceived if he fancies that similar characters must indi- 
cate similar words, as in the case of the Latin words mare, miles, 
and the English ones mare, miles. 

The materials upon which this work is founded, are as follows : 

1. The ancient grammarians and their 

2. Modern commentators. 

3. Ancient false orthography. 

4. Natural relation of the elements. 

5. Interchange of the elements. 

6. Ancient words transmitted pure. 

7. Names of places transmitted pure. 

8. Oriental etymologies. 

9. Keltic etymologies. 

10. The powers of the alphabet among those nations who 
adapted their spelling to the successive changes of their lan- 
guage. 

A comparison of such materials ought to produce trustworthy 
results, because, an error which might arise under an individual 
head, will be likely to be exposed under some of the others. Of 
these sources, not more than half are usually consulted by writers 
on the subject. 

Under the second head, Schneider's Elements of the Latin 
Language (Elementarlehre der lateinischen Sprache, Berlin, 1819) 
is the most valuable, four-hundred pages being devoted to pro- 
nunciation, a subject to which about a page is often given, which 
prevents it from being acquired, except from such professors of the 
language as have studied it. Dr. Rapp devotes 56 pages to this 
subject, in his Versuch einer Physiologic der Sprache, Stuttgart, 
1836. This work is useful upon the interchange of the vowels; 
and upon the nasal vowels. Justus Lipsius discusses the subject 
pretty fully, in his work de recta pronvnciatione latino 
lingv^, Antverpi^, 1586. 

The chief ancient authors to be consulted upon Latin pronun- 
ciation are Cicero, Quinctilianus, Marius Victorinus, Terentianus 
Maurus, Terentius Scaurus, Velius Longus, Priscianus, and Dona- 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. O 

tus. Schneider quotes fifty ancient authors, upon various points 
of pronunciation ; probably not one of whom was consulted by 
John Walker.* 

My results usually agree with those of my predecessors, and 
when they do not, the adverse opinions are given, so that the 
reader may exercise his own judgment upon them. Deceived by 
the title, I have procured several English works upon Latin or 
Greek "pronunciation," which do not contain a word upon the 
subject. Among the new views, will be found the table of the 
alphabet, (§ 35, note 36a) — an explanation of the Greek phi as 
the cognate of the digamma and Spanish B — the double nature 
of H in certain positions — the power of the vowel character pro- 
posed by Claudius — an additional argument (§ 224, note 58), 
enforcing Quintilian's view of the Greek Zeta — a refutation of 
the English J (§ 230) — the deductions generally from the natural 
relations of the elements, and from comparative philology ; and 
many of the illustrations, both Latin and transmontane. 

The alphabet of no modern language corresponds exactly with 
that of the Latin ; although there is a greater or less resemblance, 
where there has been an endeavor to preserve the characters with 
the powers they have always had, and should always retain in 
every language using the Roman alphabet. 

Latin is often read as if the logographs were Italian or German, 
and with some show of reason, because the German and Latin 
letters generally agree, and the full open vowels of the Italian 
have doubtless been transmitted pure, whilst the elision of sylla- 
bles in Latin poetry has its counterpart in Italian versification. 
(See the first note.) In the dipthongs and nasal vowels, the 
aflmities are greatest between Latin and Portuguese. 

To what extent that can be considered Latin, which a Roman 
would not be able to comprehend, can be judged from the so-called 
French reading of a German, who would pronounce the French 
word written [poche] like the very dissimilar German word spelt 



* C. Kraitsir has published a useful little work on the "Significance of 
the Alphabet ;" but it was found more difficult to get it from Boston, U. S., 
than the volumes of Lipsius, Cellarius, and Manutius from Europe. 

1* 



6 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

\_poche~]. This certainly would not be French. An Italian would 
be equally in fault, in pronouncing the French words qui est dif- 
ferently from his own chi e. 

An English boy might be inclined to smile at the Latin name 
scipio, because he fancies that it should agree with his dog's 
name Sipio ; but the discrepancy is not due to the Latin, but to 
a defective education, which leads him to write the English name 
Sipio, with the Roman cay, although he rejects it when writing 
slave and slander. 

Another difficulty arises from a queer association of ideas with 
what seem to be familiar words, as in the Latin word for praise, 
when the final consonant, is preserved pure ; but such cases must 
occur under every system of pronunciation. 

The existing materials upon Latin pronunciation are sufficiently 
explicit to teach it better than French can be taught by books 
alone without the aid of oral instruction ; but they have been so 
effectually perverted and kept out of view by the authors of spu- 
rious grammars, that we may meet with respectable teachers of 
what is by courtesy called Latin, who are not aware of their ex- 
istence. Those who assert that the pronunciation of this language 
cannot be ascertained might be deemed honest in their opinions, 
were the proper length of syllables attended to, this being well 
ascertained, and the basis of Latin poetry ; but spurious rules un- 
known to the Latin grammarians, have been foisted into poetry 
as well as prose. (See the second note.) 

Some are inclined to reject what is incorrect, but they find bad 
habits too firmly fixed, although they alter their use of the ver- 
nacular, or of a modern language, from day to day when they find 
themselves in error. If any who are already educated possess a 
false pronunciation in any language, this should not prevent those 
still to be educated from acquiring a correct one. In fact, this 
outline is intended for the' learner, for professional students, for 
such as have occasion to quote sentences or words, and for the use 
of schools of both sexes where Latin is not taught, but where 
attention is paid to Etymology, Zoology, Botany, and the sciences 
generally in which Latin words are freely used. 

Although not intended for the proficient, who may be presumed 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 7 

to be acquainted with the subject, some quotations are given in 
the original, to save the trouble of a further reference. 

Illustrations from the Greek have been sparingly introduced, 
because it is not usual to represent this language in Roman char- 
acters, and Greek characters would be of no use to many readers. 
On this account, when Greek words are quoted, they are generally 
written with the Roman alphabet, or such characters have been 
selected from the various forms left to us in Greek inscriptions, 
as most resemble their Roman analogues. This will account for 
the preference of the Greek characters, S to J, R to P, e to E, 
and O to £. 

When illustrations are taken from other languages, they are 
usually printed orthographically in italics, and phonetically in 
Latin characters, although in some cases the two do not differ. 
Italic characters are also used where the pronunciation was doubt- 
ful, or where it could not be represented by the Latin alphabet, 
as the Irish word for silver (§ 258). For the same reason, illus- 
trative words containing the vowels in fall, not, and the Oriental 
•cerebrals, &c, had to be avoided. In an elementary work on 
etymology, which the author is preparing, farther illustrations 
will be found upon subjects touched upon in this volume. 

The Oriental etymologies are not expected to have weight with 
those who consider them "fanciful," or with those who prefer the 
superficial Richardson to the philosophic Webster, whose chief 
defect is his sparing use of " Oriental analogies." An apology 
ought perhaps to be made for employing etymology at all, since 
in a recent conversation in a railway car with a student who had 
just graduated with honor in an American college, he stated that 
he could perceive no etymological connection between words like 
the Greek GeRANos and the English CRANe, or between the 
same GeRanOS and the Latin GRUS. 

In the following pages the word diphthong is written so as to 
indicate the pronunciation approved by Mr. Smart ; and k is used 
in writing " celtic," because the initial of the word intended to 
be used is not a sibilant. 

Columbia, Pa., Sept. 1850. 



introduction; 



§ 1. When a student commences the study of a language with 
the aid of books, his first inquiry has reference to the power of 
the characters which represent the words. 

2. A character is an arbitrary mark, meaning nothing until it 
has been assigned to a certain sound made use of in speech. For 
example, 

3. The character H cannot be correctly referred to a sound 
until we know the alphabet of which it forms a part. In Greek 
it is a vowel identical with the Roman E ; in Russian it represents 
the N of the Roman alphabet ; and in Ethiopic it is equivalent to 
the French or English syllable za. 

4. Before pronouncing a written word, therefore, we must know 
to what language it belongs, or we may read a Greek trissyllable 
(A P E T H) as a dissyllable in Roman characters, which would 
make apeth out of a-re-te ; an error which has a strict parallel 
in the practice of reading Latin as if the letters were those of a 
transmontane vernacular. Hence a Russian cannot with pro- 
priety knowingly confound the H and N, a German the Z and C, 
or F and V ; nor an Englishman the G and J, or C and S of the 
Latin alphabet. 

5. Latin being spoken to a considerable extent among the 
learned, particularly between the residents of different countries ; 
grammars which profess to teach it, as they must be drawn from 



* The asterisks which precede the numbering of some of the paragraphs, 
refer to notes in the concluding pages bearing similar numbers. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

the same original source, should correspond in every particular, 
recommending a uniform mode of pronunciation, whether printed 
at CaHKmnemep6ypTb, SLaJi cX^Jf or J|£ ^ , 

6. Latin is called a dead language, and on this account (!) some 
pretend that they are at liberty to give it the sounds which hap- 
pen to be represented by similar characters in their own vernacu- 
lar ; a practice which would result in as many jargons as there 
are perversions of the Roman alphabet. 

7. By mispronunciation, much of the value of Latin is lost to 
etymology and general philology, both of which depend, to a great 
extent, upon the accuracy with which words can be recalled by the 
aid of appropriate characters. 

8. The use of Latin for philological and conventional purposes 
renders a uniform conventional pronunciation necessary when it 
is brought to life in oral discourse. 

9. This would prevent ambiguity between certain words ; as 
surculus a twig, circulus a circle; sedo to calm, cedo to 
yield; scando to climb, ascendo to mount ; scelesti wicked, 
coelesti heavenly; SILICEM a flint, CILICEM of Ciltcla ; CAELUM 
a chisel, coelum heaven ; ingessi I have carried into, InjecT I 
have thrown ; and many others. 

10. Many languages, as the Russian, Armenian, Georgian, 
Arabic, Greek, &c, are not written in the Roman character, a 
fact overlooked by such grammarians as confine their superficial 
directions to those whose vernacular is supposed to be represented 
by the Latin alphabet ; without giving a Greek or Arab any idea 
of the subject. 

11. Having a rule before him which requires the imposition 
of vernacular barbarisms, and even forbids a uniform mode of 
pronunciation, the Russian cannot do otherwise than turn his 
Latin B into v or /, and Latin H into n, as if there were neither 
b nor h in the language ; whilst 

12. The Greek is forbidden to pronounce xerxes as he usually 
does, namely CSerCSes, although he is told that the Roman X 
is CS. Nor must he make Ch identical with his own Chi, 
although he knows this combination was made expressly for it. 

13. Philological relations were not taken into consideration by 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

those who, instead of endeavoring to ascertain the true power of 
the alphabetic characters, fancied that they must be identical with 
such as resemble them in their own alphabet; confounding the 
Russian C and Armenian U (Roman S), or Coptic T (pa), or 
English J, or French J, or Cherokee J (git, § 240), with the 
Roman characters of the same form. 

14. Whilst some of the Latin characters have been corrupted, 
they are preserved pure as Greek letters, the initial of the logo- 
graph of cydon being pronounced correctly when it is considered 
Greek, but confounded with that of sidon when spoken of in a 
Latin connection. 

15. Probably no one acquainted with the subject pronounces 
the character C differently in the Anglosaxon (a dead language) 
from the power it still bears in Gaelic and Welsh, or the word 
kirk would cease to resemble its original cyrc. So the Welsh 
and Scotch word cist, the Irish cisde, the German and Danish 
kiste, Swedish kista and Arabic Ms, correspond with the Greek 
/.t$T7) and the Latin cista. In English, these have been devel- 
oped into tsMst, and its literary corruption tshest. 

16. The English word poop (of a ship) is the first syllable of 
the Latin word puppis ; the Swedish, English and Dutch word 
kink is the first syllable of the Latin word cincttjm ; the English 
word croak is the root precisely of the Latin word crocio ; and 
the German term for emperor [kaiser] differs little from its 
original caesar, which the Romans also wrote [caisar]. See 
note to § 165. 

*17. It is an important law in the interchange of consonants 
of different contacts, that a guttural, as k, readily changes to a 
palatal, as s, but not the reverse. Hence 

*18. We falsify a fundamental law of philology, if we assert 
that a word which contains a guttural, has been derived from one 
whose corresponding letter was a palatal, as kist from sista, canker 
from canser, the Greek form kiksRon from the English name 
Cicero, or the English words keep, kin, kitchen, from the Anglo- 
Saxon cepan, cyn, cycene, if these contain a palatal. No one pre- 
tends that cover (from convert) in its local form (§ 77) civer, has 
an initial s ; that the biblical logographs [Kedron, Eliakim] are 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

not identical with [Cedron, Eliacim], or that the anatomical term 
sacciform is pronounced saxiform. 

19. The reading of Latin should be the successive enunciation 
of the power of each letter, which would make it strictly phonetic, 
as it was among the Romans. 

20. When in certain words the dipthong au (in brown, German 
braun) was replaced by the vowel 0, the orthography was changed, 
as in o-lla, which had been previously aula, and in suffoco to 
suffocate, from faux the throat. So when de nouo or de novo 
became contracted, it was written denuo. 

*21. That this was a point of pronunciation is proved by Festus ; 
who also states that the rustics pronounced orum for aurum. 
In some cases the pronunciation was not uniform, as in lautum 
and lotum, caudex and codex, claudo and cludo. 

22. Thus we find at the beginning of the 5th century a tend- 
ency towards a change which has been consummated in French ; 
but the French still write au instead of the proper character o, 
contrary to the correct usage of the Latin alphabet. 

23. That the vowel o replaced the dipthong au in a dialect of 
Italy, is no excuse for the French perversion of the latter, because 
the Romans did not usually follow the practice of the Greeks in 
writing their dialects. Cicero, however, wrote as he spoke, when 
his pronunciation differed from the general standard. §§ 89, 96. 
Some English authors, as if to justify their Latin cacophony, 
imagine the English consonant combination dzh might have been 
known in Italy (§ 230) ; but whether or not, the fact should have 
no influence in reading Latin, for the reason just given. 

24. Were such perversions proper, we might with the Sabines 
replace H with F in hircus, hordeum, or read an initial II in 
adrianus when it is omitted in the writing. 

25. The following rules for reading Spanish (from Cubi's 
Grammar) are well adapted to Latin reading : " To sound every 
vowel fully and distinctly, leaving, as it were, the consonants to 
take care of themselves. Never to pass over the small words, 
but to pronounce them clearly and distinctly. Never to give a 
very strong emphasis to any particular word in the sentence ; for, 
as every word is fully pronounced, there is not much room for 
particularizing any one with uncommon vehemence." 



ELEMENTS 



LATIN PRONUNCIATION 



1. OF THE ALPHABET. 



*26. An alphabet is a collection of the characters representing 
the vocal elements in a language. The term alphabet is also used 
as a name for the aggregate of the vocal elements, which are 
termed letters by Priscian, who, about the year A. D. 525, wrote 
a voluminous Latin grammar extending to 900 pages. He says 
that a letter is a sound — the smallest portion of the voice; and 
the written characters he considers representations of the letters. 
Other ancient authors use the word letter as synonymous with 
character. 

27. The Latin alphabet has varied in extent at different times. 
Some modifications were introduced to assist in representing words 
taken from the Greek, and it is to be presumed that those who 
introduced them gave them the proper pronunciation; because in 
most cases, when the words had become naturalized, the foreign 
characters gave way to the Roman ones. 

*28. The division of characters into capital and small letters is 
scarcely admissible in Latin typography, and Priscian makes no 
mention of them in writing. The small letter alphabet being 
used for its convenience in transcribing, lost its peculiar value 
when printed. 

2 



14 ALPHABET. 

29. In the more ancient manuscripts, there was not so much 
dissimilarity as at present between the two kinds of characters, as 
in the case of the small b, f, g, l, n, r, t, i (without a dot); 
whilst the small d, h, m, q, u, y, did not differ materially from 
the modern form. 

30. According to Priscian there are 23 characters in the Latin 
alphabet. These are ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQR 
S T Y X Y Z. To these the moderns have added J and U. 

31. Strictly speaking, C, K, Q, are not distinct Latin letters. 
Some of the old grammarians do not consider X a letter; some 
improperly reject H as an aspirate, and others S as a hiss. They 
might as well have rejected Thi as a lisp, and F as a puff. 

*32. The names of the characters are given by the ancient 
Latin grammarians, except those of Greek origin, and N when it 
represents its power in the English word anger. 

33. The character K (and also Q) is a duplicate of C; X of 
CS and GS; Z of SD; and oc of PS. Some of the characters, 
as U, K, &, I, oc, were rarely used; whilst Ch, Rh, Ph, Th, Y, 
Z, are of Greek origin. 

34. In the following version of the alphabet the duplicate 
characters are introduced, as well as the representatives of such 
Greek sounds as are represented in it, although foreign to the 
Latin language. The alphabetic order of the Greek equivalents 
is indicated by the numbers. 



ALPHABET. 15 

Characters. Name in Latin and English. Greek equivalents. 

1 A A Ah * A; Ok 

*o 

3 b Be bay 2 B,S ? |3 

4 Q Ce cay 13 K,x 
( 25 .... C 1 * Chi ... 37 X ; * 

5 D De day 4 A, 8 

e £ E a 8 H,^ long. 

7 p eE ayf ] 5 E, £ as in e/ic?. 

8 G &E gay 3 V,y,f 

9 H Ha hah 10 c 

10 | I e M 1,6 

11 J Jota yota l )t 
13 |- .... . . .] 9 EC 

*'.... K Ca kah 13 K 

13 L eL ai * 14 A A 

14 M eM aim 15 M,p- 

15 |\| eN ain 18 N> 

16 N» ••• a y n g f>Y 
v O O o[o ls O,o 

18 p Pe pay 19 n^rtjOT 
( 26 .... ph Phi ... 26 $,$ 

^ .... Q Cu coo 21 ? 

19 R. eR air 23 p,$, p 
p .... Rh Rho ... p" 

20 S eS ace 23 2, ? ,G 
31 T Te tay 34 T,* 

'(^..-•T 1 ! ThETA thayta ix ®,§,d 

23 (J U 00 OT,8 

33 V Ve way « 

24 J DIGAMMA /3<xv fl F,(5 

.... X iCS eecs «* g, i 

( 2 9 .... Y Y ... 25 T,« 

( 30 Z SDeta sdayta 7 z,Z,Z 

O C ANTISIGMA ... 28 -**, 4 

6 29 a ; o ; « 



16 



VOCAL ELEMENTS. 



35. Scheme of affinities between the vocal elements in Latin. 



. a* . 



LLl 3 



2 0:OS 






CO 



_j :ZQ :hH 



O- 



3^ 



s> :2m-nCLu. 



/T © 5* 



© © S-* © £h 

a a Oh p p-« 

rr T; rr W< rr> 



p Ph a p Ph p Ph 
a> 2 a> © 5S © 52 

.— H S3 ^^ p— l C3 i— I CS 




£ ^3 O ,o 
© 






*36. In the foregoing scheme the consonants of the respective 
contacts are represented in vertical columns, whilst those having 
certain qualities in common, are indicated in the transverse lines. 
It will be found of service in studying inflections and euphonio 



VOWELS. 17 

changes, not only of the Latin, but of other languages when the 
letters belonging to them are properly distributed in it. 

37. Elements or sounds of the same contact interchange most 
readily; and after them, those of adjoining ones. For example, 
R being the liquid of the palatal contact, is readily interchange- 
able with s, as in the double forms arbor arbos; honor honos. 
So os becomes oris; aes aeris; haerEo haesi; but aestas 
makes aestatis ; uro iissl become ustum, taking the next con- 
tact, t and s being made nearly at the same point. A similar 
law appears in the connection between tub£r a knob, &c, and 
tumor a swelling ; M being a nasal B, as n is a nasal D. The 
dropping of M in rumpo to form rupi, is paralleled in scIndo, 
scidi. 



2. OF THE VOWELS. 

38. The Latin vowels are either long (marked ") or short 
(marked ~), the former being double the length of the latter, 
according to the ancient grammarians. 

*39. The power of the Latin vowel characters is heard in pro- 
nouncing the following English logographs, or written words, in 
which they appear. 

A is long in Arm, short in Art. 

E " thEy " Eight. 

I " marine u deceit. 

" Own " Obey. 

U " fOOl " fUll. 

40. "The sound of the long vowels Was that of the short vowels 
doubled." — G. Walker, in Scheller's Latin Grammar. "The 
sound of the long and short vowels, though elementarily the same, 
were always distinguished in length." — Scheller. 

41. In Latin it is rather the syllable than the vowel which is 
long or short, or the subject of quantity. 

42. Two consonant characters (excepting h) following a vowel 
character, usually make a syllable long "by position." Words 
like consumo to waste, and consummo to accomplish; vita life, 

2* 



18 VOWELS, ACCENT. 

and vItta a band, are distinguished by doubling the consonant 
where its character is doubled. 

43. Dipthongs are long. A vowel preceding another is usually 
short (even when separated by h), as in chaos chaos, copIa 
plenty, mihi to me. The quantity of vowels, which is long or 
short at the pleasure of the poets, is called common. 

44. In old Latin, instead of the mark of length, the vowel 
character was doubled, as in paacem for pacem. Afterwards 
the succeeding consonant character seems to have been sometimes 
doubled for the same purpose. 

*45. A doubled character indicated a long syllable, because 
every addition increases the time, as in the double forms tantu- 
lus, tantillus; palatinus, pallatinus ; although there was 
possibly but little if any difference in the pronunciation of certain 
words written with a single or double consonant character, as in 
the forms lit era and littera; Apulia and appuliA; balista 
and ballista; causa and caussa; numus and nummusj 
bacca and baca; bellua and belua. § 19. 

46. In the Teutonic languages a doubled consonant character 
marks a short vowel, so that there is a tendency to pronounce the 
first syllable of words like penna, &c, as if it were the English 
syllable pen. This fault should be carefully guarded against. 
In Latinising Teutonic names, this peculiarity should be rejected. 

Accent. 

*47. Vowel characters often have the accent indicated, by the 
grave ( v ) and acute (') accentuals in typography; when the 
former indicates a long and the latter a short syllable, as in 
MaLus an appletree, and m&lus bad. To apply this mode to 
English, we would write tarry, stdrry; nciughty, knotty; slavish, 
lavish; profane, profanity. The acute accentual only is preserved 
in inscriptions. 

*48. In dissyllables the penult syllable (or second from the 
end) is accented, as in cassis a helmet; CaNis a dog. 

49. In polysyllables the antepenult (or third from the end) is 
accented, unless the penult contains a long vowel, when that is 
accented. 



VOWELS I, E. 19 

I 

50. The most contracted of the primary vowels, that formed 
with the shortest tube when the vowels are made mechanically, is 
I. It is heard in the English words marine, field, and is repre- 
sented throughout Europe, and in general alphabets, by the 
Roman character. Its short quantity is heard in the English 
words deceit, feet, equal. u The English seat retains the Roman 
pronunciation of situs, that is, seetus." — Webster's Dictionary. 

51. Some give the secondary English and German vowel in 
fin, fit, pity, as the "short" quantity of I, a sound which has a 
different quality, and is unknown in French. Moreover, " every 
letter retained an invariable sound." — G. Walker. 

52. Victorinus describes the vowel I as being made with the 
mouth nearly closed. It was identical with the Greek I, which 
"was sounded like the e in mete. The modern Greeks so pro- 
nounce it : and here again the English, in differing from the 
modern Greeks, differ from all the nations of Europe." — Pen- 
nington on the Pronunciation of Greek, p. 36. 

53. A vowel being a simple sound, the Homan I would not be 
one if its power were that of English i (at, in aisle) this being 
a dipthong or double sound. 

E 

54. The second Latin vowel is heard when long in obedio, 
obey ; VENA, vein; verbena, vervain; and when short, in the 
English words freight, hate, eight, weight. It is long in SECIUS 
less, and short in sEcrus otherwise. 

55. The natural position of E being between I and A, it 
shows its affinities to each, as in tEnEo, rEtInEo; lEgo, 

DlLlGO; BARBA, 1MBERB1S; APTUS, 1NEPTUS; CARPO, DlSC-ERPO; 

and in the double forms sivE, sev; Alamani, alemani; Alex- 
andria, alexandrea; herculius upon coins, herculEus in 
stone. In English, a similar relation appears in obmj, obidient. 

56. Varro considers E the vowel in the cry of the sheep (bee), 
so that it cannot be the English e. The character E is recognized 
with the Latin power in Europe, and when it is dropped for I, 



20 vowels E, A. 

the character changes with the sound. Thus the Latin seCurus 
has become sicuro in Italian, as creatura and allEvo have 
become criatura and alliviar in Spanish. 

57. As the short and long sound of E differ only in length, 
they readily flow into each other, as in prEhendo, v Eh Em ens, 
which, by dropping H, take the form prendo, vemens. 

*58. The power of I and A being determined, there is no 
character left for the vowel in vein except E. 

59. The natural order of the primary vowels, as determined 
mechanically, is I E A U or U A E I, as heard in the 
English words field, vein, far, owe, ooze. This order should be 
so well impressed upon the memory that the vowels may be 
repeated fluently in either direction, as it will be found useful in 
studying the inflections of words ; and on this account the ele- 
ments are here treated according to their affinities. 

60. The fundamental vowels are the guttural I (infield), the 
palatal A (in far), and the labial U (in ooze). The closeness of 
aperture in I and U approximates them to the nearest consonants, 
into which they are apt to fall, the first into the liquid or semi- 
vowel of the guttural, and the last to that of the labial contact. 
E and exhibit in a less degree the tendency to become conso- 
nants ; whilst A, from its openness, and its want of relation to 
the extreme vowels, is farthest removed from the consonants, and 
is consequently the type and most noble of the vowels. 

A 

61. As with all the vowels, the power of A is its name. 

62. The almost universal power of the first character of the 
Roman alphabet is heard when long in far a hind of wheat; 
fas right, and in the Latin and Italian word amo. It is short 
in ARAR the river Saone, in the final of arma, ara, and in the 
English word art. 

63. The French a (as in ame) approaches A, but is not so 
open, that is, the mouth is less open in its formation. Standing 
in the middle of the vowel series, A is the most open of the whole, 
and its use gives great power to Italian vocal music. It is equi- 
valent to the Greek A, which Dionysius of Halicarnassus properly 



VOWELS A, O. 21 

calls the most agreeable of the long vowels, and which is made, 
as he informs us, with " the mouth as much opened as possible/' 
— Pennington, p. 28. "It seems clear from the description of 
Dionysius, that this letter was pronounced as we sound the A in 
father. The modern Greeks so sound it, as do most, if not all, 
the other nations of Europe. Our English mode of pronouncing 
the Greek A is peculiarly unfortunate, excluding the very sound 
which Dionysius thought the most agreeable." — Pennington, p. 34. 

64. The descriptions of the Latin authors agree with the above, 
as in the expression rictit patulo of Victorianus Afer and Te- 
rantianus Maurus; and in the hiatu oris of Marcianus Capella. 

65. There is no evidence to show that in becoming short, the 
quality of any vowel varied, as in that case it would be a different 
vowel. §§40,51. The author of "Living Latin" (London, 1847) 
says, p. 11 — "That the Latin vowels have only one sound each, 
long or short, is clear from Priscian, who, when he would enu- 
merate the varieties of sound which they admit, mentions only 
those of accent and aspiration, which are merely varieties of its 
accidents, not of the sound itself." Yet this author, instead of 
perceiving that the a in the English words art, Cairo, kite Qcait) 
is short when compared with that in aye, ah, car, gives a vowel 
scarcely known except in English ; namely, that in fat, which, 
so far from having a quantitative relation to the vowel in arm, 
has both a long and short quantity of its own, as in Welsh, where 
bach (ch as in German) means little, and bach a hooh. 

o 

66. The Latin is heard when long in the English words owe, 
moan, lo; and when short, in obey, ocean, note, invoice (voco). 
It is found in the Latin words 6!, omEn, sol (the sun, preserved 
in Swedish and pronounced like the English soul or sole) oca ANuSj 

OCCUBO, OCTO, OTIOSUS, ORO, ORNO, OS, OBNOX1US, QUOMODO, HODlE, 
JO VIS, JOCOR, OLOR, ODOR, OBORlOR, OB, ODIUM, ROTX, DEMOPHOON 

son of theseus. It is long in morari to be foolish, and short in 
morari to delay; long in Cyclops and short in cecrops. It is 
found in the Spanish words senor, Colorado, and in the German 
pol, lob, los. 



22 Vowels 0, XL 

67. The round form of the character (0) was intended to 
picture the lips in forming the sound ; a form which does not 
accompany the vowel in nor, not, which is less common. " Our 
vowel in fond occurs but seldom, if ever, in Arabian, Indian, or 
Persian words." — Jones, Asiatic Researches, 1, 15. 

68. When long, the Latin agrees with the Greek O, in form- 
ing which, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, " the mouth 
is rounded and the lips disposed in a circle, and the breath strikes 
upon the extremity of the lips." — Pennington, p. 29. 

*69. and U being labial vowels, if the organs commence 
closing, or assuming their quiescent state before the vocality 
ceases, a labial dipthong will be formed with each, as guttural 
ones are formed with I and E under similar circumstances. This 
has induced the author of u Living Latin" incorrectly to consider 
the ordinary a dipthong, and as the Latin requires it to be a 
vowel, he replaces it with the power in all, nor. The expression 
of Victorinus answers better to the ordinary O. 

70. The interchange of and U shows a greater affinity be- 
tween the two than would be the case with awe, which has a 
greater affinity with A. Thus navibus, consul, effugIunt, 
stand in earlier inscriptions navebos, cosol, exfociont. So 
we have the two forms opilio, upilio; pyLos, pyLus; volsella, 
vulsella, tweezers. The Greek proper name HEKABE became 
Hecoba in old Latin, and finally h£cubx, passing through A, o, tr, 
of the natural vowel scale. 

71. In some parts of Italy did not exist, its place being 
supplied by U; in other parts U was wanting and replaced by 
O. — Priscian. The of tolosa has become U in its modern 
name Toulouse ; and mutina has become Modena. 

u 

72. The Latin U is long in the English words pool, cool, room; 
and in the Latin words RfiMoR, riis, crus, luna, lux, siis, Mtis, 
supplex. It is short in the English words pull, full, root; and 
in the Latin words ruIna, lupus, superbus, tumulus, Rubicon. 

*73. The Latin U is recognized with its proper sound and 
character throughout Europe ; and the position of the organs in 



vowels U, Y. 23 

forming it is well described by Capella. It is preserved pure in 
the following geographical names : — 

Anamour from anemtjrium. 

Tersoos u TARSUS. 

Courtenay " CURTINIACTJM. 

74. The character (U) is angular in inscriptions (V) ; and in 
old printing the two forms are used indiscriminately, as in laeutjs, 
vsurpatur, vsum, vt, acvtvs, diuisio, qvinqve. The more 
common, but not universal practice of the present day, is to limit 
the rounded character to the vowel power. 

75. U and O being nearly allied, are interchangeable, as in the 
old form epistula, adulescens; of epistola, adolescens; 
and in humtj, used by Yarro for humo. The same law appears 
in the changes to which the English words gold, move, Rome, 
door, floor, have been subject. 

76. U and I (completing the circle of the primary vowels) are 
interchangeable, as in famulus, fXmIlIa; simul, sImIlis; ex- 
sulo, exsilium; consulo, consilium; in the old Latin of Scipio's 
tomb, ploirume for plurimi; in the double forms Hie, Hue here; 
iLLiC, illuc there; libet, ltjbet; libenter, lubenter; and 
in tegumen, tegimen, which became teg men. 

77. The relation between U and I being organic, their inter- 
change is common, as in the English words food feed; brood 
breed; blood (formerly) bleed; flew flee; you ye; thou (where 
it has not become obsolete) thee; foot feet; rood reed; leward 
lee. 

78. The English corruptions of you for U, and eye for I, whilst 
they are disproved by this law, tend greatly to mystify the student 
who wishes to understand the genius of the Latin language. 

79. There was a tendency to elide V, as in the change from 

AUDIVISTI, MAVELIM, NEVOLO ; to AUDISTI, MALIM, NOLO. 

Y 

*80. Dionysius describes this Greek vowel as pinched or com- 
pressed, and that it is a labial appears from Capella's description, 
which assimilates it to the French u or German u, with which the 
scholars of these nations consider it identical. Pennington is of 



24 vowel Y. 

the same opinion, and cites Mr. R. P. Knight as follows: "Per- 
haps the nearest letter to it in modern alphabets is the French 
accented U, the sound of which is indeed poor and slender ; but 
such as Dionysius informs us that the Greek T was." It is both 
long and short, as in the name of HypsipyLE, a queen of lemnos. 

81. From the form of the character t, it appears to have been 
intended to represent a compressed V (U), and it is correctly 
preserved for such a sound in Polish, Danish, and Swedish. In 
modern Greek, as in some dialects of German and French, it has 
degenerated into I, except in a few words. The sound is unknown 
to the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

82. To form Y, the organs must take the position for I, the 
jaw must then be dropped to enlarge the cavity within, and the 
lips pursed and projected, and made narrower than for U. The 
resulting sound must resemble U rather more than I. "The un- 
pleasing sound and the ungraceful position of the lips agree with 
the description of DionysiuS." — Pennington. 

*83. Terentianus Maurus states that the Latin language wants 
the Greek r ; and according to Victorinus the Greeks represent 
U by a. The Y was therefore used by the learned who under- 
stood Greek, but was replaced by U and I as the words became 
naturalized. In old Latin it never appeared, until introduced by 
pedantry — a cause which has had an improper influence with 
modern transcribers, so that it is often difficult or impossible to 
determine the orthography of the ancients. 

84. Standing between U and I in the natural alphabet, Y 
readily falls into one or the other (but chiefly into U), as in the 
forms sylla and sulla; amymone and amimone; alcyone and 
alcione; symbola and sumbola; chytra and chutra; TyRO, 
turo, and tiro a novice; cyMA, CUMA, cima. 

85. The change from Y to U is most frequent, as in tortus, 
tundo, mus, sus, duo, cupressus, which are from the Greek; 
and in fact, in the dipthongs, and in the iEolic dialect, (Y) had the 
power of (U), as in some of the Sclavonic alphabets. On this ac- 
count, when Y cannot be pronounced, it is best replaced with U, 
and the preceding consonant would be more likely to be preserved 



vowels Y, I. 25 

pure, as in the proper name cyRus, which, as the name of an 
Asiatic river, has become cur or Koor. 

86. In fewer cases the Greek T has become I, as in stipes, 
sxtira, stilus. Sometimes Y has been improperly placed in 
regular Latin words, as in silvx, pensIlvanIa, hiems, tiro, 

CLlPEUS, LACRlMA (§ 283), PXPlRlUS, PlRUM. 

87. Instead of perceiving that the interchange of allied vowels 
is organic, Scheller propounds the erroneous opinion that U was 
pronounced like (§§ 71, 75) and the Greek T, citing stjlla from 
syllas as an example of the latter. — Lat. Gram., 1, 16. Now 
it is evident, that being unable to pronounce the Greek sound, it 
was naturalized by the use of U, as in the case of duo, &c. 

88. Scheller, on the strength of the two forms vertex and 
Vortex, states that E was pronounced as 0; a view which a 
foreigner might take of the allied English words vertex and vortex. 
Cellarius ( Orthogr. Latino) considers the word Hiems ivinter as 
not of Greek origin; whilst Scheller not only asserts it, but in- 
sists that it should be spelt [hyems], as if Y could not have 
changed in so common a word (§ 86). In ancient inscriptions it 
is spelt with I. 

h 

89. This character, according to Priscian, Donatus, and Velius 
Longus, was proposed by the Emperor Claudius for a vowel repre- 
sented by the characters U and I, but in which they had not their 
true power. Among the words cited by the ancients as contain- 
ing it, are maxtjmus (preferred by Cicero) or maxImus; proxu- 
MTJS or proximus (and doubtless all superlatives), posswmus, 

VOLitMUS, NOL^MUS; ARTlBUS ; MINIBUS ; AURTJFEX or ATJR1- 
FEX; MXNUBlAE or MANIBIAE, VlR, AUCuPlUM or AUCIPIUM. 

90. The vowel h was probably that in the English words it, 
Jit, in, pin; a distinct vowel which is long in Sclavonic and 
Turkish, and whilst it is allied to I, approaches U by being formed 
with a more open aperture. 

91. Priscian states that short I followed by D, T, r, m, x, 
seems to have the power of Greek r, as in video, vMum, vim, 
Virtus, vix; but we do not know the power of T in his day, its 

3 



26 vowels I, o, £, 0. 

true power being expressly stated not to have occurred in Latin ; 
and it was already provided with a character. 

92. Victorin, whilst he mentions those who consider this vowel 
"thicker" than I and "thinner" than U, recommends the exam- 
ples in which it occurs to be written and pronounced I, a mode 
which has prevailed. It is probable that many pronounced these 
words with pure U or pure I (§§ 76, 77), as Velius Longus states 
that avrifex sounds better with I and avcupare with U. 

o 

93. This character occurs in an ancient inscription, replacing 
final A in the word dicata. Its power may have been that of 
the vowel in further, or the final one in comma, altar. In the 
volume on Philology of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, Mr. 
Hale uses this character for this sound. 

[£] 

94. It is not likely that the Greek epsilon occurred in Latin, 
where it was always replaced by E, as well as the eta (§ 135). 
This vowel is heard in the English words fen met, and is long and 
a little more open in the French word mane. 

95. The final vowel in Here or HfiRi yesterday, according to 
Quinctilian, was neither pure E nor I. It was probably the dip- 
thongal sound ej (§§ 133-4), condemned by Velius Longus as a 
mispronunciation in tibi (tibej); a sound which arose in the 
Gothic forms akejt, avrkejs; borrowed from the Latin words 
aceTuM vinegar, and urceus a pitcher. 

*96. This form is not rare in inscriptions, as in the words si, 
ubi, ibi, sink; which stand sei, ubei, ibei, sinei; and the 
termination is occurs as eis. Cicero is said to have written 
civets for civis, omneis for omnis, &c, this being probably a 
dialectic variation. 

[O] 

97. There is no evidence that the vowel in the English words 
on, not, and French mol, noce, was found in Latin, and no author 
asserts that (0) had a second power, even in the dipthong ol 
(§ 67). 



NASAL VOWELS. 27 



3. OF THE NASAL VOWELS. 



98. An examination of the Indo-European languages from a 
period long anterior to the Greek might induce us to suspect the 
occurrence of nasal vowels in Latin. Thus we find the Sanscrit 
originals of the Latin words donum, Sanscrit DANA (in Roman 
characters), antrum (antra) to have a final nasal vowel. 

99. The ancient Latin grammarians are sufficiently explicit on 
the subject of nasal vowels, which they associated with m, as in 
the Portuguese of the present day, where (bom) is equivalent to 
the French (bon). In English, nasal sounds are often associated 
with ng, as in (bong) for the French (bori). In Polish, a mark 
somewhat like a comma forms an appendage beneath the character. 

100. A nasal vowel, like a nasal consonant, is made by pro- 
nouncing the letter with the nasal passage open. 

*101. Prisc-ian makes a distinction between m final, initial, 
and medial. In the first it is obscure (that is, nasal), in the 
second with its ordinary power; and when medial, as in umbra, 
it probably had its ordinary power, in addition to nasalizing the 
preceding vowel. 

102. Yerrius Flaccus indicated the nasality by writing but half 
the character [m], thus [a], and it retained its place with so 
little permanency, that viro, antioco,* have been found in in- 
scriptions (the final to be probably understood as nasal) for vlRUM, 
antiocum or antiocIium. So ven£o is from v£NU m Eo, and 
anImadverto from XnImu™ adverto. The m in circum dis- 
appears in clRCuiTus, and qvamsi (through qvasi) becomes 

QVXSI. 

103. Manutius copies an inscription (p. 143) in which a small 
curved line ( ~ ) is used (at least by him) to represent M, n and 
N (ng), as in the logographs poenv, ivicti, cvctarvm, for 
poenum, invicti, cunctarum ; so that there is antique authority 
for this mode of graphic representation. 

104. In Latin manuscripts and printed books, M (and also n) 
is frequently indicated by a straight or curved line over the pre- 

* This final O has become pure in Italian, which is without nasal vowels, 



28 NASAL VOWELS. — DIPTHONGS. 

ceding vowel character;* but this is inconvenient, as such a mark 
interferes with the placing of the accentuals and marks of quantity. 
On this account, when nasal vowels are to be illustrated, I adopt 
as near a modification of the Polish mode of indicating them as 
ordinary typography affords, a mode which is no novelty in Latin 
typography.f 

105. The Latin nasal vowels are I E A o u, as in ENi m , DECE m , 

TA m , FLOVlO m (§§ 71, 75), TU m . 

106. The nasality may have been also associated with (n), as 
in qvoties from qvotiens, and the inscriptive forms cosul or 
cos. for consul, and cojux for conjux. The letter in question 
is omitted in the first syllable of the Greek form of const antinus 
and in hortensius. The Latin word conspirare appears in 
Italian under the two forms conspirare and cospirare. 



4. DIPTHONGS. 

107. As vowels are distinguished from consonants by the 
amount of interruption, it may happen that this may be so small 
as to leave a doubt as to whether the resulting sound is a vowel 
or consonant, and this really takes place. 

108. The extremes of the vowel scale, I and u, have a great 
affinity to the allied consonants or semivowels J, v (English y and 
w), and readily interchange with them, and their little difference 
respectively has deceived good grammarians, as in the case of the 
English word well, which has been asserted to be merely oo-ell, as 
yard has been considered as e-ard. The syllables woo and ye 
disprove such views, as they are not repetitions of a single vowel. 

109. But a still closer approximation exists in a pair of coa- 
le&cents intermediate to the semivowels and extreme vowels ; and 

* As in — DANoni' regu hekouq.ue histoiua stieo eeegati, etc., 1514. 
(See note 28rf.) 

| This mode, and two forms of the superior circumflex ( *" and "* ), are 
all employed by Casserius, de vocis avditvsqte oiiganis hist. anat. 

Ferrara, 1600, 



DIPTHONGS. 29 

they occur as the final element of dipthongs. Their use in form- 
ing syllables shows that they are virtually consonants and not 
vowels, as in the English words now-we go by-you. 

*110. According to Priscian, a dipthong is a union of two 
vowels, both of which are sounded. 

111. A dipthong is a vowel followed by a coalescent. It is not 
"a union of two vowels in one syllable," such a union being 
impossible. Still less are the English syllables au {awe) and eu 
(you) dipthongs, notwithstanding the assertions of thoughtless 
grammarians to the contrary. 

112. Having a consonantal quality and power, the coalescents 
should be represented by the consonantal form of the characters 
(i, u) as in CLAVDius, and PROJN therefore (when proin is a 
monosyllable). This would render the rule uniform which re- 
quires that a Latin word must have as many syllables as vowels. 
Lempriere, in certain cases, very properly indicates the quantity 
in connection with the vowel character, and not with that of the 
consonant, which plays but a secondary part in quantity. 

113. Marks of diaeresis (which separates) and synaeresis (which 
unites syllables) can be used to advantage, as in pIiaeton when 
a trissyllable, and pIiaeton when a dissyllable. So dehjnc would 
make this word a monosyllable by uniting ej into a dipthong, the 
H being disregarded. 

114. The Latin dipthongs may be divided into labial and 
guttural, from the final element, which may be formed at the lips 
or in the throat. 

115. The labial dipthongs are Av", EV", ov; and perhaps uV 
and iv. 

116. av is heard in the English words brown, house; or the 
German braun, haus; and in the AU of most languages using the 
Roman alphabet. 

*117. In Italian there is a tendency to separate the au as dis- 
tinct vowels, so that an Italian would pronounce the name of the 
Persian poet (and correctly, according to Sir William Jones) Fir- 
DA-u-si, in four syllables ; whilst a German would give three, 
pronouncing the second like the final of endow. In modern Greek 

3* 



30 DIPTHONGS. 

the labial coalescent is said to have become the English and French 
consonant v or f. 

118. The coalescents being represented by the characters (i, u) ; 
it might happen that the aid of their near neighbors (e, o) would 
be sought also, especially if the sounds to be represented could 
not be minutely analyzed. 

119. We find this in aorelius, a false orthography of AVRE- 
Lius, the reverse being the case in lavdicea for laodicea. 
These examples are instructive, as they prove the dipthongal 
nature of the Latin AV. The Portuguese use both these modes 
of orthography, as in pau or pao (a stick), which is the first syl- 
lable of the English word poiver. The Roman city Augusta in 
Portugal is now named Aosta, the name of the Spanish city Sara- 
gossa was formerly caeSARAuGtUStA, and the river named 
timavus is now known as timao.* 

120. The English syllable cow is the first syllable of the Latin, 
Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian word causa (but see § 117); 
and the first syllable of the English colloquial word for a dog's 
bark, bowwow, corresponds with that of the Latin BAUBOR.f 
This dipthong occurs in the old English word cliowse, and a per- 
son who chowsed was named a Chaucer. 

121. EV, the second labial dipthong, is preserved in Portu- 
guese, where it is written (eii) or (eo), as in Deus, Deos (God). 
To pronounce this monosyllable, let the English syllable day have 
the final element of endow added, and pure s superadded, forming 
day-ws, which scarcely differs from the original Latin dissyllable 
DEus, and the two would be identical, were the latter rendered 
monosyllabic by poetic license. 

122. In the Welsh form of the same word (Diw) the vowel is 
that in fin. This Welsh dipthong is heard in the Yorkshire and 
New York dialect of English, as in endue, pronounced endiw, or 
endyiw. 

* If the word echoing is read as a dissyllable, the vowel o is converted 
into the labial liquid iv, as in 

" And the shrill sounds ran echoing thro' the wood." 
f Compare the Greek Gav£a> (Doric Gautfoo) to bark, howl. 



DIPTHONGS. 31 

123. The allied dipthong with the primary vowel in field, is 
found in Portuguese, as in rio, riu (he laughs), but this word 
must not be confounded with the dissyllable Rio a river. 

124. ov forms a dipthong nearly as in the English word 
froward or the old English word snow, and when words like 
prout and quousque (quo usque) are compressed to diminish 
the number of syllables, forming provt, cvovscve, the o retain- 
ing its normal power, movimentu™ probably passed through 
Movmentu™ before it became momentu" 1 . The same change 
may have happened to provIdens in becoming prudens (§ 138), 
and sororInus probably passed through soorInus, sourinus, 
sovrInus and sOjrinus before it became sobrinus. 

125. In the Duillian column the word nayebovs occurs 
for the later navibus, the ov being combined in a single charac- 
ter by superposition; and in inscriptions we ^ find abdovcit, 
plovs (plus), &c. Schneider considers this ov (as well as ej) 
to be a true dipthong. 

126. uv probably occurred as a Latin dipthong in the change 
from juvenior and uvibus (juvnior, uydus) to junior and 

UDUS. 

127. iv seems to be found in the poetical abbreviation of 

PRlMlTlVUS into PRIMITIVS. 

128. The guttural dipthongs are A J, ej, oj; and perhaps I J, 
UJ, yj, by poetical license, ae and Ai, by the concurrent testi- 
mony of the ancient grammarians, had the same power, but [ai], 
the older and more correct orthography was allowed to fall into 
disuse; so that the words ajmilius, qvajstor, ajternus, &c, 
became aemIlius, qvaestor, aeternus, perhaps from a jealousy 
of the Greeks and their literature. (§ 118.) 

129. [ai] is used instead of [ae] when poetry requires two 
syllables, as in terrai ERiiGiFERAi; affording an argument in 
favor of the double nature of ae, and proving the inconsistency 
of the later orthography, [ae] is not employed in graius, Greek, 
grajoru. 

*130. According to Terentianus [ae] had the power of the 
Greek ai; and according to Varro, in the rural word hedus, a 
was inserted in the towns ; making haedus a kid, whence it is 



32 DIPTHONGS. 

evident that ae was a double sound, as in praebEo, aenEus, 
abbreviations of praehibeo, aheneus. 

131. In Portuguese the Latin orthography is preserved, as in 
the word pae or pai (father). This dipthong is represented by 
[ai] in most of the languages of Europe. In French (as in 
/aire), in English (as in fair), and in modern Greek the charac- 
ters [ai] represent a vowel sound. There was a tendency towards 
this change in the time of Varro, who asserts that whilst some 
said faenus, others said fentjs. Dialectically [ai] has its Latin 
and universal power in French. 

132. The few modern authors who consider \_m\ a vowel cha- 
racter, make it the French e, which is the English vowel in fen 
lengthened, without becoming e, as in fairy. This word (when 
properly pronounced) is a lengthened form of ferry. 

133. ej differs from the dipthong in aide by having the vowel 
E as an initial. It may be learned by omitting the final vowel 
from the English syllables lay -ye, which will give the Portuguese 
monosyllable lei, law. In old Latin the forms navejs, clasejs, 
were used for naves, classis. § 96. 

134. ej is the Latin modification of the classic Greek dipthong 
ft, which finally became the vowel I. It is found in the poetical 

forms DEJNDE, AVREJS, PERSE JS, NEREJ. 

135. Those literary Romans who pronounced the Greek CM, 
may have used ea instead of EJ in words from the Greek; and as 
the character [*] is merely a rounded form of [e], and not un- 
known to Latin typography, there is no objection to it in repre- 
senting unnaturalized Greek words, by those who believe its 
power was used by the Romans. 

136. oj has two forms [oe, oi], of which the latter is the 
more ancient and correct. Both forms are used in Portuguese, 
as in [foe, foi\ lie has been, oj was interchangeable with tj in 
old Latin, as in coiravit, coeravit, curavit; ojno (ojno) 
for unum — and with I, as in liberum from loebesum. 

137. The vowel in or being further removed from u than o is, 
the change between oj and u indicates that the o of the dipthong 
was pure, and the ancient grammarians say nothing to the con- 



DIPTHONGS. 33 

trary. It is pure and short in the l £ NaPe word (r as sh) riHXMois 
a crevish or crayfish. 

138. The trissy liable pro-vi-dens provident, became pro-i- 

DENS, PROJDENS, PRODENS, PRUDENS, prudent. PROELlUM a 

skirmish, is a contraction of pro ilium; and from the compound 
word co-fio to meet, we have coetus a crowd. 

139. Having from a false theory (§ 69) given to the power 
in on, the author of "Living Latin" makes oe rhyme with boy* 
instead of beau-y, or the first syllable of co-equal, if this word is 
pronounced in two syllables. 

140. vj is a dipthong of which the initial is u (od), and the 
Portuguese are more consistent than the Romans in writing it 
ue and ui. The Portuguese monosyllable fui, I have been, nearly 
resembles the Latin dissyllable Fui. uj is heard in the German 
word pfui, with which the English word buoy (booy) rhymes. 

141. u J occurs in the interjection huj; and in the poetical 
forms CUJ (not cvi, according to the analogy of cuj, ciijiis) 
HUJc, FUJT. Terentianus Maurus and Julius Scaliger regard 
the final of ctr j to be J ; and Priscian considers the final of the 
vocative form CAJ in the same light. 

142. yj may occur in shortening words or inflections like 

POLYLDUS, IMITYIS, COTYIS, CAPYIS, ITYI. 

143. When yi is followed by a vowel, the coalescent is apt to 
become a consonant, as in har-py-ia (HAR-py-JX), or the French 
words essuyer, noyau. 

144. ij may occur like yj, as in livij, used by Ausonius. 

145. As the Romans used but a single character for the vowel 
and consonant power of I and v respectively, errors in pronuncia- 
tion may occur from inability to determine when the consonantal 

* "Rightly to find the Latin diphthong <e 
The sound of o and e you must employ. 
No Roman ever sounded it as we 
Who make the m and (E like English e ; 
For so our doctors taught us docile boys, 
Not to distinguish between je's and oe's. 
And thus a hundred errors find their way, 
By this confounding .as and ce with-E. r — P. 40. 



34 DIPTHONGS. — LABIAL CONSONANTS. 

powers should be employed, as in huic, which might be made 
to rhyme with the English word wick, destroying the dipthong 
by turning u into a consonant. A parallel change would be 
made if iu dipthong were changed into the English syllable you, 
that is, from IV to ju. 

146. The union into a single character of \m, (e] is improper, 
because it breaks the uniformity of notation, no other vowel cha- 
racters being so represented. Characters are sometimes united 
to economize space upon Roman coins, of which the syllables AV, 
ME, ne, et, ve, TV, val, mar, and others, afford examples. In 
forming [val], the second line of [a] would be applied to the 
top of [v], whilst it would form the stem of [l]. 



5. LABIAL CONSONANTS. 

V 

147. If the lips be gradually closed upon the vocal current, 
the liquid of the labial contact will be formed. Its quality 
approaches that of the vowel u so closely, that in Roman inscrip- 
tions the two were represented by the single character v, as in 
PVBLiCVs public, LiQVOR a liquid. 

*148. The ancient grammarians include B, P, F, M, in the 
labials; generally confounding v with u (§ 108); but Cicero 
adds v when it has its consonant power. They do not hint that 
the consonant is formed differently from the vowel v, so that this 
must be the English we and not the English ve. 

149. Those Latin authors who, in treating of the alphabet, 
describe F as being formed with the lower lip and upper teeth, 
say nothing about V ever being formed in this manner; and the 
Greeks, in representing Roman names, make no distinction com- 
patible with such a difference, as in vulturnus [Ovov-ktovgvos, 
$ttM»zvos (§ 169)], the initial syllable being the English wool. 

*150. According to Pennington, "The Roman v was more 
probably our W," an opinion with which Webster, Donaldson, 
Rapp, and the author of " Living Latin" agree. 

151. The English syllable sway occurs in the second syllable 



LABIAL CONSONANTS. 35 

of mansvetus tame, and in the first syllable of svevus, but not 
when it is the trissyllable suEVus relating to the Suevi. tenuis 
thin, has three vowels, but when contracted into tenvis it has 
but two. The reverse takes place in silva, which Horatius uses 
in three syllables. It is not probable that the same word was 
intended to be as dissimilar as the use of the English letters u 
and v would make it. 

152. The affinity between u and v is proved by the derivation 
of navta and cavtio from navita and cavitio ; and by the 
poetical use of dissoluo, evoluam, pervoluent; instead of 
the trissyllables dissolvo, evolvam, pervolvent. 

153. Cicero and Plini relate that M. Crassus, hearing a crier of 
a kind of figs cry CAVNeAS (usually printed 'cauneas'), took it 
for a bad omen, understanding the cry to be c AVE NE eAS, beware 
how thou goest, the first E being probably indistinctly enunciated, 
and the two others lengthened and confluent (§57). The English 
mode of pronouncing the first syllable of'cauneas' caw and 
CAVE with English v, destroys the analogy between the two forms. 

154. In the following examples the Latin ivay has been pre- 
served in English : — 

VALEo to be well. vermis a worm. 

VALLiim a wall. VESPa a wasp. 

VADo to walk, wade. Vidua a widow. 

VAcillo to wag, be fickle. Vigilo to wake, watch. 

VASTo to waste. VINCA a winkle (shell). 

VASTATUS laid waste. Volo to will. 

VANNO to winnow. Vicus a village or wic. 

VERRUCA a wart. BERVicium Berwick. 

ViA a way or road. ViNtim wine. 

VEHA a wagon. ViTrtim woad, glass. 

VEho to carry, whence weigh. Volvo to roll or wallow.* 

Villus wool. VuLNiis a wound. 

VELLus a fleece. VEGeo to be strong, to wax. 

VENTtis wind. VisciiM glue, whence wax. 

155. Although the use of the rounded or angular character 

* Wheel is from the same root, namely, the Sanscrit vajl to turn. 



36 LABIAL CONSONANTS. 

[u, v] is almost a matter of indifference in Latin typography, it 
is better that one form should be invariably used for the vowel 
and the other for the consonant (§ 112). 

156. u, "when followed by another vowel in the same syllable, 
becomes a consonant and should be written Vj as XQVX, sxngvis, 
&c."—G. Walker. 

157. In a few instances v was dropped after c, as in the word 
secuttjs, which had been seqvutus; in the double form seqvius, 
and sEcius; and in collIqvIae, used by Columella where Plini 

USeS COLLICIAE. 

158. If there was no v after q (as in the French and Spanish 
qui), cur could not be derived from QVaRe, conCUTIO from 
QVaTIO, CUJuS from QVIS, the Spanish cuatro, the Gothic 
fidur and English four, &c, from qvatuor; nor the Spanish 
agua from XQVX. The Greeks represented the Roman name 
qvintus by [kyintos]; and many rejected q altogether, writing 
cvis for qvis, &c. See under Q, §§ 290, 292. 

M 

159. When the lips are entirely closed and the voice is allowed 
to pass through the nose, the labial nasal will be the result. 

160. M is a nasal b, which accounts for the derivation of 
GLUMA from glubo; and the two forms proboscis and promus- 
cis. Its relation to v is shown in promulgo to publish or pro- 
claim, from provulgo, having the same meaning. 

B 

161. When the lips are closed without opening the nasal 
passages or stopping the vocality, the sound of B will be given. 

162. P had, as far as we know, a uniform power; and as B 
replaced it, as in the forms repo, rebo; scrIbo, scripo; pyR- 
RHtis, burrus; poplicus [rfsTtttxos in Greek], publTcus; popli- 
colX; publicolX; it is certain that the power of the French 
and English B existed in Latin. 

J 
*163. When the vocal barrier is broken by forcing b through 



LABIAL CONSONANTS. 37 

the lips, a sound will result somewhat resembling the English, 
French, and Spanish v, which latter is a labio-dental, and will be 
here represented by v for the sake of illustration. 

164. The pure labial consonant J is represented by the German 
[ttj], and by the Spanish [6], in certain cases, as in [Cordoba], 
from the Latin corduba. It is probably the Hebrew heith; and 
it occurred in Greek, where its character was termed j3cw (pro- 
perly jay), or aeolic digamma, because its form [F] resembles a 
union of two gamma characters [r]. 

*165. To prevent it from being confounded with their own 
character for F, the Romans inverted it, as in writing viR, 
virtus, servus QiiR, aiRTUS, SEROUS ;] but its use was soon 
relinquished. 

166. The power of v (English w) is usually attributed to j, 
probably because the German and Spanish sound alluded to 
(§ 164) is scarcely appreciated as distinct from vi or b. 

167. The small Greek letters being more easily written than 
the capitals, the digamma would be written [yp], which would 
pass into [w], and the origin of the latter character being mis- 
understood, it was confounded with [u, v]. From this it appears 
that [w] has its proper value in German. It has no place in the 
Romish languages, and when it appears in French, in foreign 
names, its power is that of v. 

168. The Greek and Latin [b], and Hebrew [3, or 3 when 
aspirate], must have had precisely the unstable power of the 
Spanish [6], sometimes lene or pure, and sometimes aspirate, and 
when aspirate, forming & and allied to v. This seems borne out 
by the Hebrew ARNABe^, and Arabic ARN£B a hare) the 
Greek purator, gompIios, and the Macedonian variation brator, 
gombos; and the old inscriptive forms bertjm, probaberit; for 

VERUM, PROBAVERIT. § 174. 

169. The views taken here elucidate the use of the Greek 
digraph o V or a (Latin u) and £, in representing allied or identical 
Latin words, as in Aax'Cvm and AajS^iazw, used by Dionysius in 
allusion to LAvlNiu m . So we find the name of varro given as 
Ba^'iov and 8a/3 ( W. See note 83. 

170. It is a curious fact in connection with these discrepancies, 
4 



38 LABIAL CONSONANTS. 

that there are Spaniards who, knowing that their [J] is never v, 
fancy it is always lene or pure ; and I have known it to be in- 
sisted upon that the German [w~\ is identical with the English 

171. As s. was used in some words written with [v], this 
character, as well as [b], probably represented it to some extent; 
as in the old inscriptive forms danvvivs, acervvm ; for danu- 

BIUS, ACERBUM. 

172. The Greek [B, j3] aspirate? became in some cases the 
Latin v, as in the words vicia, volo, vivo. 

173. The character & being rejected, its power probably re- 
mained associated with [b] as in Spanish; as we find the double 
forms bene, vene; basis, vasis; labor, lavor; it being 
extremely easy for the aspirate b to fall into the allied v, of 
which an example is furnished by the German words wein, will, 
when compared with the English words wine, will. 

174. The B was probably at first aspirated in words from the 
Greek having phi, as balaenS,, NEBiiLa, albus, orbus, ambo. 

175. v became b or b, as in belliim from dvellum, bis 
from dvis ; and in besica for vEsica, larba for LARVa, berna 
for verna, &c. 

176. b sometimes replaces p, as in absens, absolutum, from 
the older forms apsens, apsolutum. So we find conlabsum 
for COLL AP SUM. 

177. B must have been pure in the numerous cases where it 
interchanged with p. 

P 

178. When the vocality of b is stopped, p is the result; it is 
therefore a surd b, as B is a sonant p. It was not subject to 
aspiration, which formed a sound foreign to the language. 

179. P sometimes replaces B, as in cSNOPus [Karwffo?]; and in 
the inscriptive form optinebit for obtinebit, &c. § 162. 

180. The character for P arose from the Greek form [n], the 
right side of which was frequently made but half the length of 
the left, forming a character [r] to be seen upon old Roman 



LABIAL CONSONANTS. 39 

Ph PI 

181. When the breath is forced through the lips (as in 
blowing a small object), the Greek phi [$, $], (a labial/) is the 
result. It is therefore the corresponding surd of the sonant 
digamma. It is heard in Swedish, and is represented by [/] in 
the German word kopfoveh. According to Pennington the modern 
Greeks pronounce [<£] soft and full, "more like a sigh, though it 
is not easy to express the difference in writing." P. 71. 

182. Phi occurs in certain words of Greek origin, and there is 
sufficient evidence of its distinctness from F, as in the case of the 
Greek witness ridiculed by Cicero for pronouncing a proper name 
phuNDANius instead of fundanius. If the Greek digraph [ar] 
was not av but af, as the modern Greeks maintain, Cicero's 
witness would have had no difficulty with the Roman F. 

183. In naturalized words of Greek origin phi became f, as 
in filius a son; FlMa fame; FiiGa flight ; fur a thief; f£ro 
to hear; FALLO to deceive; FAGiis a beech; fratEr a brother. 
In inscriptions we find fAselus a shiff; falErae trappings; 
sifo a siphon; elefas (and ELEPhAs) an elephant; delfinus a 
dolphin, which the moderns write with [ph]. The carpensian 
Virgil and that of the Vatican have sulpur for sulfur sulphur. 
The ancient pdaium is written \_Faioum~\ or \_Faioom~\ in books. 

184. In some cases phi became p, as in purpureus [7to£$v£fos], 
PALANGA or phaLANX, PROSERPiNa; in the double form tru- 
PERA, from TRYPhERA; and in the change from phoEnicius 
Phenician, to POENiCus, and finally to punicus punic. 

*185. Some authors suppose that the Greek phi (also Eh, Th, 
and Ch) was p followed by an aspirate, as in the English word 
JutYEazard, because the ancient grammarians regard it as P and 
an aspirate, as it is in fact ; for if an aspirate is made and the 
lips be gently closed toward the P position, phi will be formed. 
Hence this sound is not a post-aspirate, but a co-aspirate P, or 
this element modified by a synchronous aspiration. 

186. Quintilian admired this sound as a pleasant breathing, 
which shows its nature ; whilst Terentian wished it to be pro- 



40 LABIAL CONSONANTS. 

nounced in introduced Greek words, although this could not be 
done by the Romans without special instruction. 

*187. The power of [f] is known (§ 190), and Priscian de- 
scribes it as composed of P and an aspirate, so that it is related 
to phi, which is not the fact with p followed by h. Moreover 

188. The Greeks, who could not pronounce f, represented it 
by [$] Phi in Latin names, as in &a6io$, &avstv%o$; for fabius, 

FAVSTULUS. 

189. In words borrowed from the Greeks, phi is sometimes 
represented in Roman inscriptions by a character formed of a 
union of [p] and the right hand portion of H. See 31anutius' 
Orthogr., Venetiis, 1566, pp. 215, 271, in the words nicepior, 

PIILEMON. The former inscription has [th] united in the word 
AMARANThiis, by adding the horizontal line of [t] to the left 
hand line of [h] lengthened upwards. 

F 

*190. The Roman f is correctly pronounced by the moderns; 
as the ancient grammarians describe it as being made with the 
aid of the lower lip and upper teeth. There is no evidence of its 
corresponding sonant v existing in Latin; and it is also wanting 
in German. 

PH,etc. 

191. Modern writers on Latin grammar have falsely assumed 
that if a Latin word is derived from the Greek it must follow a 
certain orthography; and if not derived from this language, it 
cannot have ph in it. It might as well be said that the English 
words haPHazard and uPHold are incorrectly spelt, because PH 
should be placed only in words of Greek origin. 

192. The orthography of bosphorus is said to be incorrect, 
because the etymology requires it to be Bosporus, an assertion 
which virtually denies that H can be acquired in words from the 
Greek where it is absent, although hibiscu and helops are 
examples to the contrary. 

193. The word bosphorus would not be [B<o$$o£oj] in Greek 



LABIAL CONSONANTS. — DENTAL CONSONANTS. 41 

characters, but [Bco?7to£o 5 ], as isthuc (ist-huc) would be [c^'s^] 
and not [&s£«x]. 

194. h followed p, &c, (when written) in triumphus, inchoo, 
cochlea, bacchus, and other words. 

195. Cicero thought h should be rejected from triumphtjs, 
pulcher, carthago, and cethegus, probably because he did 
not pronounce it, and his authority is sufficient for its rejection. 
This fact is sufficient evidence that ph in triumphus are not 
equivalent to r ; and the inscriptive forms triumpus, pulcer, 
are sufficient authority for its rejection. 

196. If this view of the double nature of [h] is correct, there 
is no means of readily determining when it is to have its inde- 
pendent power. On this account [h] is used when the pure sound 
is supposed to be represented; and [h], which is an ancient form, 
when it is merely a diacritical mark of co- aspiration. 



6. DENTAL CONSONANTS. 

L 
*197. L is the liquid or half interruption of the dental con- 
tact, and the descriptions of Victorinus and M. capella corre- 
spond with the ordinary modern power. 

198. L interchanges with the liquid of the next contact R, as 
in pavlus and parvus little; parilia and palilia a kind of 
coat. This change is extremely common in the languages of 
Polynesia, and is observed in the Spanish esclavo and the Por- 
tuguese escravo. 

199. L interchanges with d, as in dacrima and lacrIma a 
tear; odor an odour, oleo to scent. 

N 

200. N bears the same relation to D that M bears to B. 



201. d is the sonant, fully interrupted member of the dental 

4* 



42 DENTAL CONSONANTS. 

contact. It is interchangeable with t, as in Xput for apud, set 
for s£d. This change corresponds with that of P to B. § 179. 

T 

202. t is a surd D, or d deprived of its vocality. 

Th 

*203. Th is an aspirate, usually, but not necessarily formed a 
little in advance of the ordinary position of the dental contact, 
like the Irish d in certain cases. It is the equivalent of the 
Greek theta, which the modern Greeks pronounce as in the 
English word thin. 

204. When Th replaces s it forms a lisp, and this interchange 
indicates the co-aspirate nature of theta [©, £] as in Th £ os god, 
in the Doric dialect Sf5s, and in the Laconian sior. § 220. 

205. The Germans, French, and Italians are not familiar with 
the sound of Th, and they accordingly replace it with t, which 
the author of " Living Latin" justifies. 

206. The English sound of [tIi] is common in the Oriental 
languages, and so is H following t, as in fooTHold. 

207. The Sanscrit t remains t in Greek and Latin, and D and 
t followed by H become Th, and also t in Greek; which is in 
favor of the post-aspirate theory that theta represented the T and 
H in poTiiooh. But 

208. The Sanscrit d followed by h becomes the Greek delta 
[a, 5] to which the modern Greeks give the power of r>h in this. 
Moreover, the Sanscrit pure T also becomes the Greek theta, 
which is against the post-aspirate theory. 

209. The post-aspirate theory would remove an anomaly from 
the Latin alphabet, namely, the representation of a single sound 
by two characters, but language must not be sacrificed to writing. 

210. By taking [tIi] as the representative of two sounds, as in 
penthouse, Beethoven; or of T alone, as in isthmus, Thomas, 
Anthony, Luther, Rothschild, Othello, we establish a rule which 
must be followed with [ph] and [ch]. 

*211. ii occurs after t in isthuc, isthic, antiiac (when 
ANTEiiAC is condensed), postiiac, posthumus posthumous, and 



DENTAL CONSONANTS. — PALATAL CONSONANTS. 43 

probably in penthemimeris (from the Greek p*NTs hemi 

MsRIS). 

w 

212. The modern corruption of reading the English sh instead 
of T in words like lectio a reading, rxtio reason [and of Cay in 
oCEXNus ocean) is improper; and a rejection of sh implies that 
of the Italian corruption tsh. 

*213. Saint Hjerom (who died A. D. 420), after stating that 
the Hebrew Samech is S, finds himself unable to give his Latin 
readers an idea of the Hebrew W (or \t?) shin (or sin as he was 
compelled to write it), because the sound does not occur in Latin. 

214. According to the same authority the Hebrew i'adde 
(usually but improperly read as ts) is disagreeable to Roman ears. 
It is a peculiar aspirate consonant of a quality between English 
sh and ch (%), and equivalent to the Arabic sad, and Greek 
$a t urci or can, whose place in the Greek alphabet is next after n. 



7. PALATAL CONSONANTS. 

R 

215. R, the liquid of the palatal contact, must be trilled or 
vibrated to make it agree with the descriptions of the ancients. 
It cannot therefore be replaced with the English smooth r. It 
sometimes interchanged with L, as in pxtErx and pxtellx. 

216. Rh, the aspirate of R, is surd or whispered. It is used 
almost exclusively in words taken from the Greek, which gets the 
sound from the Oriental languages. In the Romic languages it 
is preserved in the French terminations pre tre ere. 

217. The Greek aspirate r (^ l ) was not always preserved in 
Latin derivatives, as in rosx a rose, resinx resin; being, like 
other foreign sounds, rejected from properly naturalized words. 
The old Latin word burrus, which was legitimately developed 



44 PALATAL CONSONANTS. 

from the G-reek, was afterwards considered a Greek name and 
replaced with pyrruus. 

s 

218. s, in French and English, when it occurs between two 
Vowels, is apt to be affected by their vocality, and to become 
sonant, as in miserable; and we might hence incorrectly conclude 
that the rule is universal. 

219. In Spanish, s preserves its pure hissing power, and as 
the ancient grammarians do not mention a sonant power, the 
same sound must be preserved, as in the English syllables say 
(sE himself) ace (£s thou art). The Latin word tres three, is 
preserved in Spanish, and pronounced like the English word 
trace, which is a little shorter than the Latin word. 

220. s was interchangeable with its liquid, as in the old forms 
plisima for plurima; qvaesumus for qvaerimus, § 76; 
papisius for papirius ; lases for lares ; asas for aras ; 
melios for melior; fusius for furius; and fasena by the 
Sabines, for arena. 

z 

221. z, which (like y) was not used in old Latin, is a double 
letter according to the ancient grammarians, and it accordingly 
lengthens a syllable by "position." 

222. z is composed of s and d, but we are not informed whe- 
ther the hissing (surd) or buzzing (sonant) sound was used. In 
the vocal scheme (§ 35) the latter is assumed. 

*223. According to Dionysius, z is composed of s followed by 
D, "and that this is done advisedly appears from a passage in 
Herodian." (See the note.) — Pennington, p. 70. According to 
Maximus Victorinus z is sd, the proper name mezentius being 
mesdentius; and in consonance with this view, the proper name 
EZRA or ezras is given as coS^aj (esdras) by Origen. The 
ancients named d a mute and s a semi-vowel, and Verius Flaccus 
(if the text is pure) says that without doubt z ends with a mute. 
The Dorians wrote [sd] at length, instead of [z], as in [MfLiSDo] 



PALATAL CONSONANTS. 45 

for [MfLizg], so that sd is correct, at least as far as the Doric 
dialect is concerned. 

*224. Surd consonants being less difficult to form than sonant 
ones, they may be expected where the latter occur. The Italian 
dz and ts are not Greek combinations, and were the former in- 
cluded in z, we would still want ts, which should be at least as 
common as ds. But compound forms like esDECHoMAi show that 
sd is a Greek combination, although usually represented by [z]; 
we may therefore naturally expect its corresponding surd ST, 
which we find so common that it has been provided with a 
character [$■], as in as^ov (astron) a star; and words like 
S^at^iit^tov from $$cu£i£i<>, soarttjT'^ from saxru^oi, x^vstgy from 
x%v£a (xTivsSco), and the double form mastos and mazos (masdos) 
are conclusive. Characteristics of a language should be faithfully 
recorded, and none should be relinquished because the develop- 
ment of certain modern languages has taken a different direction. 

*225. z, in naturalized Latin words, took one or the other of 
its constituents, as in medentius and messentitjs, instead of 
mezentius; musso, spisso; and in old Latin we find the Latin- 
ized forms sona, sevxis; of zona, zevxis. Emplacements like 
these are also found in Greek, as 88 (lisped?) for z in Doric; and 
kyprismos from kyprizo. Compare $£a£w, $£<»$«, s^a8op. 

226. In modern Greek [z] is a vocal s, as in rose; and this 
seems to have been its ancient power (or a dialectic variation) in 
a few words, as in ZMiRNX Smyrna. — (Pennington, p. 69.) This 
view is confirmed by the variations in inscriptions, as lezbia for 
lesbiX; philogenez for philogenes; * t a.oxfcgJ£ for $ao^j. — 
(Schneider, p. 382), although, according to Priscian, no true Greek 
word ends with z, and Scuj for Zevs, and bysantion as well as 
byzantion upon ancient coins. So the name of the Spanish 
town sXGunttjs was written with an initial [z] by the Greeks. 
The English z was probably found in the Eolian ZA for dia, z 
and d being allied sounds. 

227. In Italian, z has become both dz, as in lazaro; and ts, 
as in calza; and in this language (and in German) s has crept 
in between t and io, as in nazione, from natio a people. 

228. The corrupt mode of reading Latin by inserting s after T 



46 PALATAL CONSONANTS. 

in words like natio and gratia, is supposed to date as far back 
as the beginning of the seventh century ; as we learn from Saint 
Isidor,* of Spain, that justitia was at that time pronounced 
justizia, but we are still in doubt whether his z had its ancient 
power, its English one, or the Spanish lisp. Lipsius quotes a 
passage (p. 74, which Schneider does not consider ancient) in 
which tz is assigned as the power of this T. 

229. Latin ceased to be the vernacular language of Italy 
towards the end of the sixth century. 

(dzh, zh) 

*230. A few English authors have endeavored to justify the 
English dzli in Latin from the word jupit&r, which they think 
may have had an initial D, being, as they say, derived from Diu 
piter ; although others derive it from jovipater, and diespiter. 
But diupiter would merely have produced the first syllable of 
the English word due (not jew), as in aDJUnctus, aDJUto- 
RIUM, which have become at7?/?mtivo, adi/utorio, in Spanish. In 
a similar manner, the gay of the Irish word cuig seven (the first 
syllable like coo, the second as in ignite) changes dialectically to 
the Latin dj, forming ctuDJ, not coo-idzh, which would be an 
English development. 

231. Moreover, a consonant preceding another was frequently 
dropped, as in the proper name bellius from dvellius ; in bis 
from duis; the English when from the Latin qvando; the 
Dacro-romanic ava for aqva ; and the Oscan pettora when com- 
pared with qvatuor. 

232. As the sonant phase of a consonant is more difficult to 
form than its surd equivalent, it cannot be expected that the 
Romans, who could not pronounce shin (§ 213), would be able 
to form its sonant, the French j as in azure, which is included 
in dzh. 

233. If [t] is another form of [s, sh, or ts] in otiosus at 
ease; [d] must be read as English z or zh, or be followed by z } in 
ODioSUS hateful. 

* Schneider, p. 356. Grotefend, 2, 272. 



GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 47 



8. GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 

234. The guttural contact is formed with the base of the 
tongue and palate. 

j 

*235. J (yota) is the liquid, or half interruption of this con- 
tact. It is heard as the initial of the English words you, yoke, 
and in the last syllable of hallelujah, which is spelt in English 
with the proper character, as recognized in Italian, German, 
Polish, and most of the languages of northern Europe. 

236. The natives of JiiA (written [Yafa] by a recent English 
traveler), and "Yebna," the ancient joppa, and jamnia, pre- 
serve the initial of these names pure; and in the Levant the 
initial of the names John, Jacob, and Joseph, corresponds with 
the German sound, and no one pretends that the Hebrew originals 
should be pronounced differently. The river of India named 
jomanes by the Romans, is now called jamuna (Yamoona) by 
the natives, and corrupted into Jumna by the English. 

237. The English pronoun you occurs in Swedish, where it is 
spelt [ju] as yule is spelt [Jul], with the proper characters. 
The English word young differs only in the vowel from the 
German j 'ung, which is the Gothic jungs, the Latin juvenis and 
the Sanscrit juvan, giving the last in Roman characters, the 
first and third letters being the English \_y] and [w]. From the 
Sanscrit juga resulted the Latin jugu, the Gothic and Dutch 
juk, the German jooh, the Spanish yugo and the English yoke. 

238. The consonant J has been retained in many Spanish 
words of Latin origin, as in ayunar, jEjunare; yacer, jxcERe; 
yactura, J A CTiiRX ; yambigo (Ital. Jambico) IaMBicus; yugular 
(Italian Jugulare) jugulARIS; yuxtaposicion, juxtaposItio ; 
conyugal (Italian conjugale) CONJugiaLIS. 

239. J has to some extent become dzh in Italian, as in giacere 
from jacere ; and also G (in the same contact), as in conghiettura 
(Spanish conyettura), although conjettura is also used. A some- 
what similar change has taken place where J has become ch in 






48 GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 

Spanish, j, g, and ch being members of the same contact, and 
therefore interchangeable. 

240. The Spanish use of the character J to represent ch, is 
therefore less of an error than to make it the representative of 
zh or dzh; just as the character G is less perverted when read J 
(as in Bohemian and Gothic), than when it is read zh as in 
French, or dzh as in English. When [g] represents the Roman 
[j] it is surmounted by a dot in Irish, as in writing saigitteoir, 
Latin Sagittarius an archer. 

241. Double forms like losEPh and j5sep1i; abiegnus and 
ABJEGNUS made of fir ; and the use by Plautus in the dative 
case singular of eji for ei show the close relation of J and i. 

NG 

*242. The guttural nasal is heard as a final in the English and 
G-erman word sing. It is represented by [N adulterinum] in 
Latin, where it occurs before the gutturals C (q, x) g, and ch, as 
in ANCORA an anchor, ANClLLA a maid servant, inqvIro to in- 
quire, long us long, A NG villa an eel, ANxius troubled, ANchiSES 
Anchises, ANGeLus an angel, Ingenuus ingenuous, LONGINUS 
Longinus. 

243. The Greeks and Romans neglected to provide this element 
with a peculiar character. In old Latin it was more correctly 
represented by [g] in the Greek manner, as in aggulus an angle, 
aggvilla (aggulus, aggvilla), the sound having a nearer 
relation to G than to N, and to represent it by the character of 
the latter, conveys a false idea of its affinities, as if the character 
for M were allowed to represent N, this being a parallel case. The 
change was probably made to prevent words like agger a mound 
from being pronounced like anger. 

244. G has a proper character in Sanscrit, as in the original of 
the Latin word coNchx a conk shell, and its Greek form, in which 
it is represented by the gamma. It is also found in the original 
of ANGUSTUS narrow, from the Sanscrit verb AGG to contract. 

245. G was in some cases derived from M by assimilation, as 
in princeps (prtmiceps), sinciput (semicaput), horunce 
(iiorumce) unqvam (umqvam). 



GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 49 

246. In transcribing Roman words, the Greeks used their 
gamma instead of [n] when this character represented ng, as in 
the name of the British tribe cangiani, which became katkanoi 
in Greek, as Plutarch uses nRirKiniA for princIpIa j affording 
additional proof of the guttural nature of the Latin sound. 

G 

247. G (gay) is heard in the English words gear, give, gay, 
get, go. It is the sonant of Cay, and was represented by the 
same character until the little mark was added which distinguishes 
[g] from [c]. This mark was introduced by Carvilius, after 
whom it may be named a carvilium. 

248. At a remote period, the celtae or Kelts entered Spain 
from France by crossing the Pyrenees, and having become per- 
manently established, they formed with the Iberians the celti- 

BERI. 

249. This accounts for the Keltic names in Spain which the 
Romans adopted ; and for the occurrence of the same names in 
Spain and England, as Abono in the former and Avon in the 
latter; or that of Jura in the Hebrides, and in Switzerland. 
Asturias is derived from AS a torrent and tir land, meaning the 
land of torrents; Sardinia from SARD the larger, and INIS island; 
and Lusitania from TANA the country, o of, LUIS flowers* 

250. The languages of the Keltic stock, having preserved the 
Roman gay and cay pure to the present day, supply us with the 
pronunciation of ancient Latinized names, as tulingi from tul 
a flood; ungead, leaping ; ctngetorix from cingead valiant, 
and rig (Latin regs) a king ; COGIDUNUS from cogac war, and 
DUN a hill; vergesila^nus from pear (Latin vir) a man; gals 
expert, saelan (with a) spear. The name of a British king, 
VORTIGERN, is from por, chief, and tigerna, lord; and that of 
the British tribe durotriges is from dur, water, and trig, an 
inhabitant. 

251. In French, Guines is derived from GISNA; and Bigorre 

* The Gael and Cymbri, by Sir W. Betham, Dublin, 1834. The works 
of Johnes and of Prichard may be consulted on the same subject. 



50 GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 

from bigerrensis AGER j whilst the German name Bregentz is 
from bregentium. In German, Spanish, and some other lan- 
guages, the character [g] never becomes the representative of a 
palatal articulation. 

c 

252. The Latin [c] cay has the power of [k], and no other; 
as in calco to tread, calcitro to kick, calceus a sandal. The 
character [<] was used at an early period as the representative 
both of G and c, whilst [c] has the third place in the Roman 
alphabet, which is occupied by [r] gamma in Greek. 

253. In the name gajus or cajus the sonant or surd form is 
used indifferently, and the Sanscrit jug (yoog) to throw, produced 
the Latin jacio. In the double form trice simus thirtieth and 
trigesimus, if [c] represents s, [g] represents English z; or if 
the latter represents dzhi, the former represents tshi, as in Italian. 

254. "The uniformity of pronunciation in c, G, &c, when fol- 
lowed by a vowel, is strikingly confirmed by the silence of all 
the ancient critics and grammarians, who, though treating ex- 
pressly of pronunciation, never indicate any variety," — G. Walker 
in Scheller. This argument is strengthened by the fact that the 
ancients are sufficiently explicit upon the varying power of [n] 
and [m]. 

255. In the following lists the words written in the first column 
are derived from those of the second, and it will be remembered 
(§ 17) that palatals do not change to gutturals. 

SANCTUM sancitum 

DOCTUM DOCITUM 

LECTUM LECITUM 

VINCTUM VINCITUM 

DECURIA PECEM 

CEP1 CAPlO 

TARCI PAROUS 

SECIUS SECUS 

AUDACTER AUDAClTER 

ALLECTO ALLICIO 

OCELLUS OCULUS 



GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 51 

256. The organic change from c to s was indicated in Latin 
orthography, as in censEo and sentio to be of opinion; census 
the censor's valuation, sensus sense (from the same root); ful- 
crum a prop, FULCIO I prop, FULSI I have propped. We find 
also ravcio, raVsi; and sarcio, sarsi; which, as variations 
respectively of the same word, would have been written similarly 
if so pronounced. 

257. [k] is used in writing the Greek form of caedo to strike 
or hill, which is the Gothic scathia and English scath. Yet 
caedo is frequently read as if it were sido to perch, or cedo to 
grant. Moreover, the same root gives rise to cedo and cado to 
fall (§ 55), whence OCCASUS a fall, death, and occIdo to perish. 
lucerna a lantern became lukarn in Gothic, and leuchte in 
German; and the Gothic faskja is from the Latin fascia a 
band. 

258. The guttural contact in ACER or acris sharp, bold, is 
preserved in acrid and eager; and in macEr and the English 
meagre, the French maigre, and the German rnager. It is also 
preserved in the Irish cer, in Latin cera, wax; airgiott, Latin 
argentum, silver; ceL, Latin Celo, to conceal. 

259. The Greek kyknos a sioan, is the Latin cyCNtis or 
cyGNus, and the modern Persian quqnus; a cherry is kiras in 
Arabic, cErasus in Latin, and kirsche in German; and the 
Greek mekao to bleat, became the Latin miceo, the German 
meeker en, and the Lithuanian mikenu. 

260. If the initial of the Latin word ciThlRA (spelt with K 
in Greek) was a palatal, the Italian chitarra (ch as k), French 
guitar e, and English guitar would have a doubtful etymology, 
and the same doubt would exist in the case of the German words 
keller a cellar, kerker & prison, kicher a chickpea, which are from 
the Latin cellarium, carcer, cicEr; or with the English 
words elk from ALCES, and skink from SCINCUS, a kind of lizard. 

261. The Sanscrit schal (h pure after k) to swerve, gave rise 
to the Greek skolos, whence the Latin scelus guilt, and subse- 
quently the Gothic skula, and modern TVestphalian s'chuLD ; 
so that [sc] in Latin is not a double character for s, any more 



52 GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 

than septic, sin are identical in English with sceptic and 
(properly scin, from the .Anglo-saxon). 

262. The following Keltic etymologies of Latin names from 
Betham (§ 249), show the guttural nature of Latin Cay (§ 15). 
CALLAici, from caoileach, narrow (the narrow slip); avlerci, 
from all great, and learg plain; cerones ; from caor sheep; 
iceni, from gan bounds, and oice the sea. 

263. The consonant cay has been preserved in the modern 
names following : — 

Kaiserlautern from CAESAREA AD LUTRAM. 

Kaiserswerd " CAESARIS verda. 

Kylbourg u celbis burgus. 

Querquinez (qu=k) " CERCINA. 
' Draguinan " dracenum. 

Exilles " ocelum. 

Selefkeh " seleucia. 

The following Syrian names are from the maps of the Society for 
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge : — 

Ladikiyeh from LAO DICE A. 

Kaisdriyeh " CAESAREA. 

Killis " CILIZA. 

Antakia " ANTIOCHIA. 

Kerak " char ax. 

The following words are from a vocabulary of Albanian given in 
Diefenbach's work.* Ch has the power of k. 

Fachie from facies. 

Pache " pace. 

Pische " Piscis 

Kepa u CEPAE. 

Sckanduem u SCINTILLA. 

264. When a prefix is added to a Latin word whose initial 
consonant is different from the final of the prefix, an adapting 
change called assimilation usually takes place in the prefix. 

265. Thus ad to becomes an when a prefix to necto to bind, 

* Ueber die jetzigen romanisohen Schriftsprachen, u. s. w. Leipzig, 
1831. 



GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 53 

forming annecto to connect. The same prefix is modified in the 
first syllable of the compounds allatro to bark at, attribuo to 
attribute, appello to drive towards, AFFLiio to flow towards, 
ARRogo to claim, assIdeo to sit at) whilst in adduco it remains 
pure. In pomoerium a limit, post is reduced to po. 

266. ad becomes AC by assimilation before cay, as in accolo 
to dwell near, ACCEPTiis accepted, ACCiNGO to gird; and AG 
before gay, as in aggravo to aggravate; aggero to heap to- 
gether. Priscian cites qvicqvam (from (Jvidqvam) and accidit, 
as instances of this change from day to r cay. All these examples 
prove that the conjoined letters had the same sound, and to pro- 
nounce them differently reverses the Latin practice. 

267. When a consonant character is doubled to represent 
assimilations, both should be pronounced. 

268. The operation of assimilation is seen in the change of n 
to ng (§§ 242, 246) in words used as examples of the change by 
the ancients themselves, as ANGeLus, ingeuiis, longinus; and 
no exceptions are adduced to this change before cay and Gay 
preceding I and E, so that they must each have been uniform in 
all cases ; for had they been palatalized in ancilla and longI- 
nus, the n preceding them would necessarily have remained pure. 

269. Every one pronounces the second c in ECCU m behold him 
like the first, yet this word being a contraction of ecce ileum, if 
a sibilant is placed in ecce, it should have a place in the deriva- 
tive. So from Hie here are formed hicce this, and hiccine he: 

*270. The Greek character [k] was never properly naturalized 
in Latin, nor was it used as in the modern Teutonic languages 
where cay would be likely to become s ; but (according to the 
author of "Living Latin") to prevent cay from becomingly; 
and as this distinction took place only before the single vowel A, 
and was obviated by a difference of character, the [k] became 
useless, and was so considered by Priscian, who says it has no 
other value than [c]. Varro and Nigidius Figulus (§ 292) re- 
jected the character K, whilst Quintilian, Terentian and others 
considered it useless. 

271. According to Gregorius Placentinus [k] at one time had 

5* 



54 GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 

a syllabic power equivalent to CA, when carus was written 
[krus] but read carus. 

272. For the sake of brevity, the Romans introduced into their 
numerous inscriptions a multitude of abbreviations, in which a 
few initial characters, or a single one, represent an entire word; 
as [c. cl. r.] for cavsa clari regi. 

273. Manutius gives a list of fifty words for which the charac- 
ter [c] stands; thirty for [q], and twelve for [k]. Among the 
last are calenpae, carus, caput, c alumni a, words sometimes 
spelt with [k], a practice which the inscriptions fostered, although 
they were intended merely to prevent confusion by assisting the 
memory in reading them. 

274. In reading Latin words as if they were represented by 
English characters, there is a singular discrepancy in the case of 
[c, g], which have preserved their pure power before A when the 
character is insulated, but not before [i] when incorrectly read 
aj, nor before ae, as in caenepolis (the modern Qene or Keneh) 
although in ancient inscriptions [k] is sometimes found in the 
latter case, as in kaesonia, kaesius. 

275., If c and G had not their pure power before I e, as in 
gear, gay, key, cane, the alphabet could not represent these syl- 
lables, and Latin would be a more corrupt language than any of 
those derived from it, and, in fact, the most anomalous known. 

*276. The ready interchange of c and G, &c, seems to prove 
that the surds p, T, c, were what Rapp terms "indifferent," or 
pronounced with a greater surface of the organs in contact, as in 
some modern languages ; a phenomenon which causes surd and 
sonant to be confounded, as in German, where dinte or tinte (ink), 
brod or brot (bread), are used according to the inclination of the 
speaker. 

277. c and g must be fully pronounced before N (§ 19), as in 
the German word gneiss (gnajs) a kind of rock; hue (the old 
English knee); and in the Irish cndib, Latin cannabis hemp; 
gne, Latin genus KiNd. The same remark applies to t in 
tmolus, the name of a mountain ; and to P in the proper name 
ptolEmaeus, and in psalmus (psalm in German and Flemish, 
and salm in Danish). The Greek combination kt is found in 



GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. 55 

Latin in borrowed proper names like ctesias, and although it is 
somewhat difficult, it must be pronounced if accuracy is desired, 
as in some of the aboriginal languages of America. 

X 

278. According to Maximus Victorinus and Diomedes, "the 
ancients," before the invention of [x], wrote gs and cs, the former 
in words inflected with g, like rex, rexi, maximus, anxius, 
and the latter in such as are inflected with c, as pix, lux, felix, 
dixi. In cases of doubt, as in nix (compare ningo), connixi, 
Alexander, [x] may be read cs, especially as Yarro (a cotem- 
porary of Cicero) asserts that no one can distinguish any difference 
between its two powers. 

Ch. 

279. Chi is the aspirate of c, a sound which is retained in 
modern Greek, Scotch, German, Spanish, and many other Euro- 
pean languages. 

280. In Latin, chi occurs in words taken directly from the 
Greek, and when it cannot be pronounced, it may be replaced 
with c, as in the Latin double forms chARiTAS charity, cochLEA 
a snail, and (more correctly) caritas, coclEX. The pronuncia- 
tion should, however, follow the orthography. § 19. 

281. The Greek chi sometimes became G in Latin, as in gal- 

BANUM, ANGO, LINGO, CULIGNA; and H, as in HUMOR, HERES, 

hiems, hio, hirundo; but more frequently c as in orca, lan- 

CEA, SCINDO. 

282. In old Latin the Greek chi was replaced by cay, as in 
the inscriptive forms bracio, bacas (BACchAs), bacanalibus, 
antioco (antioco), subsequently pronounced ANTiochu by the 
Greek scholars, who were numerous in Rome. So the proper 
names chLOE and cuarmosyne were Latinized at an early period 
into cloe and carmosne. 

CH 

*283. c followed by H (§ 194) is found in the Latin words 
chors (from cohors), pulcher (also sculptured pulcer), an- 



56 GUTTURAL CONSONANTS. — GLOTTAL CONSONANTS. 

chora (but Marius Victorinus considered an cor A the more cor- 
rect word) and lachrima, which seems to be less proper than 
lacrima. The following forms are taken from three different 
inscriptions, a line from each : 

MISER . QVID . GEMIS . ET . LACRIMAS 

IGITVR . LE'CTOR . LACHRIMES 

TRIB . LACRVMAS . POS 

284. Plutarch introduces chi into the Greek form (n*kz*e;) of 
the name pulcher, following a Greek rule (note 211), or mis- 
taking every union of C and H for the Greek chi. The same 
thing occurs in the Greek form of gracchus or graccus, from 
which [h] is rejected by Varro and some inscriptions. 

285. The power of c and H is doubtful in Punic proper names 

like BARCHA, BOCCHUS. 



9. GLOTTAL CONSONANTS. 

Q 

286. The Oriental Qof and Greek qoppa (?) is a very ancient 
character; its form in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is the figure 
of a man's head and neck, the latter being for some time repre- 
sented by a vertical line (as in the Greek 9POTJ2N for kroton; 
9OPIN0OS, &c, upon old coins), which degenerated into the 
ordinary appendage. In Hebrew and Samaritan, which are writ- 
ten from right to left, the tail is placed upon the left side. 

287. The sound, a glottal K, was found in Hebrew, Phenician, 
and Zend ; and exists in Hindoostani, Arabic, Persian, Coptic, 
Armenian, and Gurgistanic (Georgian). It was not a Latin 
sound, although it was probably found in Italy, judging from 
Etruscan monuments. Modern scholars use [q] to represent this 
sound. 

288. If Qof had been a Roman consonant, it would be repre- 
sented in certain words of Eastern origin, as coRNii a horn (He- 
brew and Arabic qarn); qorban a <///?, a Hebrew word introduced 
by Saint Mark vii. 11; camInus a furnace (Arabic qamin, Per- 



GLOTTAL CONSONANTS. 57 

sian qumin a chimney)) CXRXbus a crab; (Arabic xqrab a 
scorpion)) cymxtium wavy carved work, from the Greek kyma 
a ivave, and Hebrew QUM to rise. To these probably belong 
cxtus, Arabic qitth a cat; and viclx a vetch; Greek bikion, 
Arabic baql. §§ 168, 172, 175. 

289. In the following proper names, qof and not cay occurs 
in the originals : damasqus, isaaq, jaqob, QXiN, q£muEL, 
XMALeQ (a as in fall), AQsLDaMA, Acts i. 19. 

*290. The use of [q] in Latin was to indicate that the follow- 
ing [v] represented a consonant, but it became as useless as K 
when the two forms [v, u,] were introduced, so that its use 
should have been relinquished, as in the ancient examples acvae 
for aqvae, cvo for qvo, and cvando for qvando. The last 
word is retained in the Spanish cuando. 

291. The character coo was of little account in indicating the 
consonant v, because the difficulty was not obviated in cases like 
uNGVENTu m an unguent, SXNGViS blood, SVXDEO to persuade, 
so that regularity in orthography as well as ancient authority 
would allow it to be rejected. 

292. On account of its identity with c in Latin, some ancient 
authors did not consider coo a letter, and Vellius Longus states 
that qvis might be written cvis. The celebrated orator and 
friend of Cicero, Licinius Calvus, avoided this character, and 
Nigidius Figulus made no use of K, Q, nor x. 

293. In a few ancient examples [u] followed [q] as the repre- 
sentative of a vowel, as in laqus, qura, qurvus, pequnia; for 
lacus, etc. It would have been etymological in Xbxqus and 
syqxmorus. 

H 

294. H is the liquid of the glottal contact, in which the requi- 
site amount of interruption is secured by emitting the unvocalized 
breath with a certain velocity, and not by reducing the vocal 
passage. It is heard in the English and German syllables hut, 
hat, held. 

295. This sound has become almost entirely obsolete in the 
Romish languages, which might lead us to believe that it did not 



58 GLOTTAL CONSONANTS. 

exist in Latin. The ancient authors, however, speak of it as an 
aspiration, and no exception is made for words like honor or 
honos honor, horA an hour. 

296. In Ariolatpo or hariolatio, and some other words, H 
was indifferently used or rejected; whilst AVE hail! was esteemed 
more correct than have. 

297. The following are a few of those words likely to be con- 
founded by the French and Italians, whose vernacular has lost 
the typical aspirate : 

Abitus a departure. habitus condition. 

AC and. HAC this way. 

Amator a lover. HA ma tor la deceiver, 

ARA an altar. hara a hogsty. 

Elices gutters. H Elices spirals. 

EV ! well done. hev, hav ! alas. 

ostiA doors. hostiA a victim. 

*298. " There seems no good ground for supposing that the 
sound of H was ever suppressed by accurate speakers." — G. 
Walker. The rule (§ 19) would require H to be pronounced 
after a vowel in the interjections oh, proh; as in the Bohemian 
word lehhy ; the Konza word for nose, which is the English syl- 
lable paw followed by H, as if pa'h; and in the Hebrew words 

GOMORRAH, MILCAH, MAChPELAH, REBEQAH, L5TH Lot, NlNE- 
VEH, EPhAH. 

299. h occurs rarely after n, as in Xnhelo to gasp; and in 
the proper name tanormus, which stands panhormus upon 
some coins, as synhodus stands for synodus in an inscription. 

300. Catullus condemns the affectation of saying hinsidias 
for insidias ; and ctjommoda, that is c'ho-mmo-da, for commopa. 



NOTES 



Page 5. As examples of the elision of syllables in poetry may 
be cited multum ille et terms, which is read mult' ill 7 £t 
terms; ultro asiam, read ultr' asiam. So we find scj'- 

ABSURDE for SCIO ABSURDE; TV'ARBITRATU for TUO ARBITRATE^ 

m'ercle for meo hercule ; and mj'ajc for mea haec. So in 
Italian poetry we find bevve for bevette; capei for capelli; cor for 
cogliere; dicestu for dicesti tu, &c. 

Page 17. According to Adam's so-called "Latin Grammar/' 
Prosody " teaches the proper accent and quantity of syllables, the 

right pronunciation of words, and the measures of verse A 

long syllable in pronouncing requires double the time of a short 
one. . . In most Latin words of one or two syllables, according to 
our manner of pronouncing, we can hardly distinguish by the ear 
a long syllable from a short one." That is to say, if this author 
were to hear the word ajax or ajax, he could not tell whether 
the speaker used a long or a short initial. It is well that Prosody 
teaches the proper quantity of syllables, because the false gram- 
mars do not; the rules just quoted, and all others in the same 
book, being contradicted, superseded, and rendered worthless by 
the first paragraph, in which the learner is informed that "Latin 
should be accented and pronounced by us according to the pre- 
vailing analogies of our own language, without regard to the 
prosodial accent and quantity of the ancients." Hence if "our 
own language" is Italian, sine die contains four syllables and 
as many vowels; if German, three syllables and vowels; and if 
English, two syllables (like in fine) with a dipthong in each, 
such being the prevailing analogies; and as these do not exist 



60 NOTES. 

between Latin and Armenian writing, this rule will prevent 
Armenians from reading Latin at all, although they learn it. 

English analogies will allow a pyrrhyc to be read as a tribrachys 
(as in h&t-tal-ion or b&k-tal-i-on, in the annexed foot note*), and 
a fully pronounced dissyllable to be used as a monosyllable, as 
flour, flower, bower, heav'n, &c. The quotation will show whe- 
ther it is correct to say that " In English heroic verse, every line 
consists of ten syllables, five short and five long." 

Quantity being a matter of the voice, the varieties of Latin 
poetic feet must be judged by the ear (so at least thought Hora- 
tius and Cicero), that being a long syllable which is long in 
pronunciation. Hence in English reading, the feet in hominibus 
and fortissImus are identical, because both are pronounced in 
the same time, instead of the two first syllables of the latter 
occupying the entire time of the former word. It is chiefly inat- 
tention to quantity which annoys the student when he is learning 
to distinguish a proceleusmaticus from a dispondens or a dij am- 
bus; or to determine whether the nature of armamentarium 
is molossidactylic or dispondentipyrrhic, to be of no use to him 
when known, if he makes it antibacchiodactylic, by reading ac- 
cording to false quantity; especially if his Hudibrastic teacher 
is satisfied with tragododidascalicological names of the feet, rather 
than with the feet themselves. f 

* In the following example to is marked short, whilst too or two' would 
be long; and throng is short when compared with wrong. The succession 
of short syllables in the first line, and of long ones in the second, conveys 
the idea of a rush followed by greater composure when the battle begins. 
The first is rapid, and the second deliberate, so that and and men might 
have been marked as long. 

So I to the I fight the l thick bat- I talions I throng, 

Shields | urg'd on | shields and | men drove | men a- | long. 

Pope's Homer's Iliad, iv. 485. 

■f H' had hard words ready to show why- 
And tell what rules he did it b^-; 
For all a rhetorician's rules 
Teach nothing but to name his tools. 

Hudibras, i. 85—90. 



NOTES. 61 

English poetry is written and read appreciating!? without a 
knowledge of the Latin feet, with which some have attempted to 
cripple it. As Latin feet depend upon quantity, and English feet 
upon accent, the two cannot have the same names. In English 
there is no difference in the use of what would be a molossus in 
Latin, as loathesomeness ; an antibacchius, as flamingly; a dactyl, 
as harmony; and a tribrachys, as pitiful; one being capable of 
replacing the other if the proper accent be preserved, as pitiful 
enemies instead of the two first feet in the following approxima- 
tion to an English scansional hexameter, compared with one of 
Virgil's : but although this may be done, the iambus billow can- 
not replace the iambus below.* 

"ARMi VI- 

arms and the 



RU m QV£ CX- 
hero I 



M QVl 
first from 



primus XB 
ilion's 



ORIS. 

borders. 



NO TROJ 

sing who 

Literary people fancy that — 

" From the low | pleasures of [ this fallen | nature ..." 

is an example of dactylic verse, although low is as long as the 
next syllable ; this is shorter than fall; and the first syllable of 
nature is as short as the second, or equivalent to fate, which is 
as short as fat, and shorter than fane. This example, like my 
own, has the natural or prose accent at the beginning of each 
foot, which is not the case in Latin. The following line will 
therefore give the unclassical reader a better idea of Latin versifi- 
cation, in which it may happen that a foot (like the fourth) is 
without a natural accent. This accent is marked in the example, 
the long with a grave accentual, and the short with an acute one. 
Boreas is given as an English word. 

Storms and bil|lows and hor|rors three[fold throlBdreas'[wailings. 

This is prose, and if Latin verse was recited with the prose 
accent (and the Italians recite it in this manner), the listener 
could not distinguish it from prose, except by the quantity, and 



* The 


billows 


| float in 


order 1 to the 1 shore, 


The 


wave be- 


1 hind rolls 


on the 1 wave be- 1 fore. 
Pope's Homer's Iliad, iv. 480. 



62 NOTES. 

for this accent Bentley contends ; whilst Mekerchus was in favor 
of a mode like scanning. The author of "Living Latin" would 
have dactyls, anapests, trochees, and iambics accented on the long 
syllable; tribrachs, spondees, andpyrrhics to take the accent upon 
the first syllable among dactyls, &c, and upon the last in iambic 
or anapestic verse. The ancient grammarians leave this question 
in doubt, and amidst such conflicting opinions the least objection- 
able mode seems to be to pay strict attention to quantity, and to 
avoid the use of accent. § 25. 

Dr. Gaily, a literary person of the last century, who has many 
followers at the present day, asserts incorrectly that "No man 
can read prose or verse according to both accent and quantity. 
For every accent, if it is anything, must give some stress to the 
syllable upon which it is placed; and every stress that is laid 
upon a syllable must give some extent to it, for every elevation 
of the voice implieth time, and time is quantity." An unlettered 
person could not have fallen into such an error. In the Latin 
Grammar of the Rev. P. Bullion, D. D., N. York, 1843, it is 
stated that "In English every accented syllable is long." If 
these views were correct, there would be no difference in quantity 
between tarry to remain, and tarry from tar. See paragraph 47. 

§ 5. The names at the end of this paragraph are given in the 
original character to enforce the views of the preceding ones. 
The first name is JSt. Petersburg, the second el Medina, and the 
third Canton. 

Via. The tongue being in a manner wedged into the throat, 
its base has not so free a motion as its apex, so that palatal letters 
are more easily made than gutturals. I do not assert that excep- 
tions to the rule of change from guttural to palatal do not occur, 
although I believe that some of the cases that may be cited are 
more apparent than real. 

b. In accordance with a notion that English orihography must 
be etymological, I have avoided the use of words which seemed 
to indicate a change from palatal to guttural, as in "nuiSanCe" 
from M)CeRe (§ 220.) I have consequently been compelled to 
use the original form of iioratius, and to avoid the English form 
of praefatio, DEFENSiO, &c. The corrupt use of [c] in English 



NOTES. 



63 



has caused authors whose classical knowledge could not he doubted, 
to use this character in writing insessores (perhaps as an English 
word) and supercede. Noah Webster says that to spell sigdr with 
[s] is a mistake of the grocers. It is evident that the mistake 
in writing "defence," &c, is grosser. 

18a. The Sanscrit SAICA5 irrigation (whence the Latin siiccus 
juice) is said to be from the Sanscrit (in English letters) seetsh, 
but this is probably rather modern, and it is more probable that 
both are from a lost form with a final cay, because the English 
palatals dzh and tsh are so common in Sanscrit as to induce the 
belief that cay and gay must have disappeared from many words 
before they were written. - 

b. The Sanscrit snu to sprinkle \s supposed to have given rise 
to the Gothic snaiws and old English snow, &c, yet the Russian 
snieg, the Gaelic sneachd, and Irish SNachTo, have a guttural 
which must be looked for in some ancient collateral dialect. The 
Sanscrit root of the Greek ago has the double form AG and (in 
English letters) adzh, of which the former must be the older, 
and therefore the true root The initial of the Sanscrit analogue 
of cool, gelo, GELIDUS is English dzh, although it was probably 
GALITA5 at an earlier period. The Latin malignus is evidently 
older than the Sanscrit malinas, which probably lost a gay. The 
arguments used in this note tend to disprove views like the fol- 
lowing : u Perhaps £ was retained because the original dialectic 
sound dsi passed over, among the Greeks, into ksi." — Buttman's 
larger Greek Grammar, by E. Hobinson. Andover, 1839. 

c The English words quack, cuckoo; with the Latin COAXO, 
Ctjculo, and their Greek forms, cannot be derived from the 
Sanscrit CATsh (to which they are referred), because this must be 
a later form of kakh to cry and to laugh, which gave rise to 
chuckle, giggle, gaggle, cackle, chicken (Angl. cicen), cheek (Dutch 
hek), cough, hiccup; and probably cake, coke, cook, citchen, if the 
original idea is connected with the noise of cooking. 

d. Although the predominance of palatals in Sanscrit where 
the Greek preserves the gutturals, leads to the conclusion that in 
certain points the latter is the older form, this need not prevent 
us from considering a#o as a derivative of AG ; because the latter 



64 NOTES. 

probably occurred in languages which preceded the Greek. On 
the other hand, the absence of Sanscrit words like galitas is a 
strong argument against its great antiquity under its present form. 

21. "AVLAS ANTIQVI DICEBANT, QVAS NOS DIC-IMUS OLLAS." 

— Festus. 

26. The following extracts are given to show how imperfectly 
the rudiments of grammar are defined: " Sentences consist of 
words; words of one or more syllables; syllables of one or more 
letters. A letter is the mark of a sound. Letters [marks of 
sound] are divided into voivels and consonants. A vowel [mark 
of a sound] makes a full sound by itself. A consonant [mark of 
sound] cannot make a perfect sound without a vowel; as b. d." — 
Adam's Latin Grammar, with Improvements. It appears from 
this that vowels, consonants, and syllables, instead of being parts 
of human speech, whether written or unwritten, are merely marks, 
also called letters; and that the consonants b, d, 1, m, &c, cannot 
make a perfect sound, probably because a mark can make no 
sound, although a human being can, particularly a Sclavonian, 
who uses entire words without a vowel, as smrt, srp, krm, drbl. 
His speech, however, does not contain " marks of a sound," but 
the sounds themselves. The next sentence to the last quoted 
informs us that " A vowel is properly called a simple sound ; and 
the sounds formed by the concourse of vowels and consonants 
articulate sounds.'' Hence, a sound and the mark of a sound are 
identical. The sections in the same Grammar devoted to the 
dipthongs and consonants are equally confused and inaccurate, 
which is unfortunate in a work which defines Latin Grammar to 
be " the art of speaking and writing the Latin language correctly." 

28a. For the forms of the Roman script letters, the Foreign 
Quarterly Review for October, 1841, may be consulted. 

b. The first character in Roman inscriptions is not larger than 
the rest, although a large letter was occasionally used, as I for II 
in dIs. The use of characters of two sizes (unknown in most 
alphabets except modern Greek and Roman) is seen in the fol- 
lowing copies of parts of ancient inscriptions from Manutius. 

c. These examples show that the hyphen was not used, and 
that the only point was a dot separating the words, but which 



NOTES. 65 

was not used at the end of a line, or where the modern period 
point would he used. 

d. In print, variations in the form of the characters cannot 
well he represented. The accentual is prohahly placed after the 
character to which it belongs, for the convenience of the printer. 
It was probably placed above in the original inscriptions. 

1 

1 

MATV'RA . PER . sTYGIA . MORTE . SEQVAR 

2 

conIvgi . svo 

KARISSIMO . ET . SIBI 

3 

conIvgI . CARISSI 

MAE . B . M . PEC 

4 

EEC . F . CARISSIMO . PlIsSI 

MO . ET . SIBI . ET . SVlS 

5 

SIT . TIBI . TERRA . LEVIS . MVLIER . DIGNI 

SSIMA . VITA . QVAEQVE . TVIS 

O'LIM . PERFRVERE'RE . bonIs 

6 

D . M 

D . IVNIO . PRIMIGENIO 

QVl . Vlx . ANN . XXXV 

IVNIA . PALLAS . FECIT 

CONlVGl . KARISSIMO 

ET . PIENTISSIMO 

DE . SE . BENEMERENTI 

CVM . QVO . VIXIT . ANNIS 

XV . MENSES . VI 

DVLCITER . SINE . QVERELLA 

32. In Bullion's Latin Grammar, it is stated that "The Latin 
alphabet consists of 25 letters, the same in name and form as the 
English, but without the w." The same author discusses the 
letters under one head and the vowels under another, and under 

6* 



66 NOTES. 

the latter we are told that "A vowel is a letter, which represents 
a simple sound/' 

36a. Being founded upon organic laws, this table maybe made 
a useful element in the construction of Grammars ; and it will be 
found a more important aid in etymology than any system of false 
orthography. This will appear in tracing the following words : — 



Greek D A K R Y M A 


Latin p o b c u s 


Latin L A ; C R I M A 


Germ, r E R k e L 


Gothic T A G R 


Welsh p £ R ch i Lh 


French la r m e 


Dutch b i G 


Anglosaxon t e A R 


Eng. pi G 


English t i R 


French p o R c 


Welsh Dai GyR 


Irish m u C 


" D TJ B, water. 


Gaelic M u ch 


The German p i ch e n to tip-pie (or tope), and 



p e g e In to dip into (dive), give 
the English p i ch e I a stepping liquid, 
the Scotch p i gg i n a dipping vessel, 
the German b e ch e n whence basin {pitcher?), and 
the English m u £.* Compare Margaret and Peggy. 
I. The Roman v (English w) is aspirated in the English word 
when (wh-w-e-n), L and R in Welsh, J (English y) in Cherokee, 
and in the English syllable migh, hue or hew (yh-y-u). The 
aspirate of D is heard in this, and of G in Dutch, and sometimes 
in German. 

39. Prof. Anthon, in his edition of Zumpt's Latin Grammar, 
considers the short e in mete long, and a Professor of Latin and 
Greek has expressed to me his doubts as to whether the last syl- 
lable of deceit is any shorter than that of marine, redeem, &c. 
The former, as I pronounce it, is one fourth of a second long, and 
the latter is not less than half a second. Any musician who is 
an accurate timist may decide between us. This view of a short 
vowel was published by me in a review in 1846. 

45. The Italians, whilst they give the same quantity to vItta 
and vita, give a distinct pronunciation to each consonant indi- 

* Mug — "I know not whence derived." — Webster. 



NOTES. 67 

cated in the former ; so that the two are perfectly distinguishable 
in pronunciation. 

47. The French (and some other nations) have introduced a 
corruption in using the accent marks to indicate distinction in 
sounds, as between de and de. 

48. These rules for the accent of prose are those of Quintilian, 
who says besides that a final syllable is not accented. Subsequent 
grammarians, however, cite exceptions, which Scaliger thought 
unworthy of attention. Nevertheless, when an author or editor 
places an accentual in writing RECTe, MALe, PENNa, it is to be 
understood that he wishes these words to be accented accordingly. 
In my work on the Freshioater univalve mollusca of the United 
States, Philad., 1842, and Monograph of the genus Leptoxis (in 
Chenu's Illustrations Conchy ologiques), Paris, 1847, I have used 
accentuals in the Latin descriptions; but in the later crypto- 

CEPHALINARUM BOREALI-AMERICAE DIAGNOSES CUM SPECTEBUS 

NO vis, etc., I have made no use of them, nor of the combined 
\_m, <e], and I have conformed to the European practice of writing 
adjectives like pensilvanicus with a small initial. In deference 
to the journal in which the latter was published, it is printed in 
the European character, a Latin character being used at the begin- 
ning of a sentence, although in Latin typography in the European 
character, a small initial may be used after a full point, as prac- 
ticed by Lipsius, and to some extent in German. 

58a. Although this is not the place to treat of G-reek pronun- 
ciation, I may be allowed to give a few words upon the eta (h), 
which I believe to have been the pure Roman e in vein. From 
the formation of this vowel it is more closely allied to A than I is 
(the latter of which the modern Greeks consider eta to have been), 
and in allied dialects it would be more likely to change with A 
than if it were identical with i. We accordingly find eta in the 
Ionic words hElios, atIiEnai, tIiEseus, sophiE, tIiorEcs, &c, 
and A in hAlios, atuAnai, tuAseus, sophiA, ThoRAcs, in 
Doric. The Attic in the three first agrees with the Ionic, and 
in the two remaining ones with the Doric. So we find xalsjflcu 
and Tufisjflat, from ^ay^ai/o. Compare a^a, a^; atj, ^j; Tii^y, 

Kbfxsvosi 7tot£Q, rtOM7$«; x?j^ for jefa£, ajxJ^s Or asxs^'/is, to show 



00 NOTES. 

that vi had a strong relation to £ and a, so that it could not be 
identical with i. Cratinus says the cry of the sheep is By. 

b. The old Doric form GA (the earth) became ge in normal 
Greek, and this has become Gl (or Ji) in the modern pronuncia- 
tion, by the closing of the organs, just as the Latin clarus 
(German Mar) became claire in French and clear in English. 

69. LONGUM AVTEM PRODUCTIS LABIIS, RICTU TERETI, etc. 

— Victorinus. 

73. U ORE CONSTRICTO LABRISQVE PROMINULIS 

EXHIBETER. — Capella. 

80. Y APPRESSIS LABRIS SPIRITUQVE PROCEDIT. — 

Capella. 

83. That the Greeks represented u by ov or « is proved by 
their orthography of Roman names, as tibur Tij3«£a, regulus, 
Vqys'kos', ALBULA, AX,3«a.a, ; NOVUMCOMUM, NojSy^xo^s/t; VALE- 
RIA, 8ca££ta$. The following are Greek versions of Latin names 
in Britain: SfXyovcu SELGOVAE; Nouaj/tfac NOVANTAE; Ayvava, 
DEVANA; tiixtogia VICTORIA; Xaxopayoc VACOMAGI; Ka^arcot 
CARNABII; Xevta VENTA; 'PatHTtiai RUUTUPIS ; A*£o>tgiys$ DU- 
rotriges. The English often pronounce u as you and » as in 
round I whilst an English scholar, as if to impress this barbarism 
permanently upon the Greek, uses « for the dipthong in round, 
in his phonetic English alphabet. 

96. hejc occurs in the following vertical inscription (Manutius, 
p. 113. Aldus, Venetiis, 1566):— 






s 


s 


I 


s 


T 


A 


A 


H 


s 


E 


u 


1 


N 





T 



101. "M OBSCURTJM IN EXTREMITATE DICTIONUM SONAT, UT 

TEMPLUM; apertum in principio, ut MAGNUS; mediocre 
in mediis, ut UMBRA." — Priscian. 

110a. "DIPHTHONGI AVTEM DICUNTUR, QVOD BINOS PHTHON- 



NOTES. 69 

NAM SINGTJLAE VOCALES 

suas voces habent." — Priscianus, lib. i. 

b. An inverse dipthong is where the coalescent precedes the 
vowel, as in the French words oie, trois. Thie peculiarity is con- 
fined almost entirely to the French language, which wants the 
ordinary or direct dipthongs. 

111. A dipthong is etymologically and practically a double 
sound, and has nothing to do with the number of characters 
used in representing it. Yet the French continually speak of 
words like their an, eu, being dipthongs. The English word 
aisle is composed of one dipthong and one consonant, and ail of 
a vowel and a consonant. The Abbe Sicard is in error in saying 
that eau is a word composed of vowels, because eau (an or 6) 
comprehends but a single vowel or continuous voice. In the 
Spelling-book of Wm. D. Swan, the word beat is said to contain 
a diphthong. 

Ilia. I have noticed the peculiarity in the nxdaco language 
of Texas, of the Latin dipthong av being co-existent with the 
dissyllabic atj. 

b. This distinction is rarely recognized by grammarians. Since 
the text was printed, I have heard the dipthong oj in Portuguese, 
as in ojto (in Latin characters) eight. 

130. " Alpha semper atqve Iota qvem parant graecis 
SONI, A ET E NOBIS MINISTRANT." — Terentianus Maurus. "In 

LATINO RURE HEDUS, QVOD IN TJRBE, TJT IN MULTIS, A ADDITO 

HAEDUS."— Varro. 

148a. Y, LTTTERAM QVOTIES ENUNCIAMUS, PRODTJCTIS ET 
COETJNTIBUS LABRIS EFFERIMUS. VictorinuS Afer. 

b. "The Umbrians and Oscans distinguished between u and 
V. The latter was a consonant, and was pronounced like our 
w." "v must have corresponded to our English w." — Donald- 
son's Varronianus. 

150a. The following strange argument has been adduced to 
prove that English and French v existed in Latin. • " The Latin 
ear was certainly too delicate ever to have suffered the pronuncia- 
tion Wox Wentus instead of ventus, which it seems to me would 
have been^as strange to them as Woice for Voice, Went for Vent, 



70 NOTES. 

Winegar for Vinegar, do to a well-bred person now in England." 
— H. Bonnycastle, Classical Museum, No. 23. 

6. It seems from this that v is more of a well-bred sound than 
w, so that of the two words from the same root, wine and vinegar, 
the former would be the more vulgar; and that the Germans who 
acquire English v sooner than w, throw a " well-bred" and classical 
air around their English in saying vind and varm instead of wind 
and worm. § 154. 

c. Supposing the Romans to possess English v, and the power 
of English w to be doubtful, the force of this argument may be 
tested by paraphrasing it for a Roman grammarian in this manner : 
"The English ear is certainly too delicate to suffer the pronuncia- 
tion worm instead of verm (from vermis). We know, moreover, 
that in French the power of the characters w and v is identical, 
and that in German (whence the English probably borrowed it) 
the character w does not represent the semi-vowel contended for 
in English, so that the verb went was probably identical in sound 
with the noun vent." 

d. When an unusual sound, or a sound used in a mode to 
which we have not been accustomed, offends our prejudices, we 
are apt to persuade ourselves that our taste alone has been offended. 

e. If English w is less pleasant than English v, r must be less 
pleasant than English z, the relation being about the same (§ 220); 
and whilst it accounts for the two English forms hurrah and huzza, 
it shows that to prefer the former is like preferring wine to vine; 
whilst to prefer the latter is like preferring vine to wine. 

163. The proper character for English v in the Roman alphabet 
would be that of F with the middle line crossing the stem, so as 
to form a Carvilium. § 247. 

165. j appears in the following inscription, from Manutius: — 

OCTAtflAE 
C L A V D I I 



C A I 


SARIS 


V G V 


S T I . P 


F I 


L I A E 



185a. "With regard to the Greek <p, there can be no doubt 
that it was a distinct p'h, like the middle sound in hap-hazard."— 



NOTES. 71 

Donaldson. There is no evidence that Mr. Donaldson was ac- 
quainted with the aspirate form of P. 

b. An element cannot properly take its name from that which 
follows it, an error which is often committed in speaking of the 
Sanscrit post-aspirates like th in foothold. 

187. "F pro P et aspiratione ACCIPITUR." — Priscian. 

190a. "iMUM SUPERIS DENTIBUS APPRIMENS LABELLUM." 

Terentianus. 

b. The interchange between hircus and fircus, and his view 
that "no labial can pass to a guttural," have led Mr. Donaldson 
to adopt the theory that "The Latin r contained some guttural 
element, in addition to the labial of which it was in part com- 
posed ... It seems to me that r must have been sv, or, ulti- 
mately, hv, and that v must have corresponded to our English 
w." Such a theory is unnecessary, because, according to Mr. 
Hale (see Am. J. Sci., May, 1846, p. 319), the change from f 
and s, to H, is a peculiarity of the Hawaiian and Tahitian lan- 
guages, when compared with the Polynesian standard, f is, in 
fact, composed of H pressed through the labio-dental contact, and 
if this is broken, the aspiration remains, which accounts for the 
change, 

c. The same author adduces the Gothic hv and English wh, 
and the Greek and Latin mode of writing rh, as examples of 
transposition, but incorrectly, because the two modes represent 
an identical sound, like the old English \]iwen~\ and English 
[when]. See note 224d 

197. According to Priscian, there were three varieties of L, 
slender (exile) as in ille; full (plenum) at the end of a sylla- 
ble, or when preceding another consonant, as in silva, flavus; 
and ordinary (medium) in other places, as in lectus; but we 
are not able to refer these to the various modern varieties of this 
letter, as the Welsh, Polish, or Hindu. One distinction must be 
made, that of doubling the sound where the character is doubled, 
as in soulless. § 19. 

203. Gibbon ("Roman Empire," chap. 37) states, without 
authority, that the sounds of English th and w were unknown 
to the Greeks and Romans. 



72 NOTES. 

211. In Greek, when PeNTc or p £ nt' jive, and hemi semi are 
united, the T and H are united into (p) Th ; and K followed by 
an aspirate becomes (#) chi, as in DgKA or DfE.', and hamma, 
which form Ds^amma, not p^k' hamma (8s jea^a), as if the post- 
aspirates were to be avoided. Some may think that this favors 
the post-aspirate view, although it is contradicted by comparing 
forms like d*ka ten, and Hex six, with DsKAcX sixteen, from 
which the aspirate is rejected. But in the Bengali, in which 
post-aspirates are common, H after p, as in p'hela fruit, is often 
turned into r, forming fela, although r is not otherwise a sound 
in this language. So the English name Bentliam has become 
JBenth'am. 

213. The purely English notation [s7i] (and its cognate [zli] 
used in the alphabet of Mr. Pickering) is not in consonance with 
the Latin alphabet, nor is it philosophical, [s] being already the 
representative of an aspirate, without the addition of \]i\ ; so that 
in a Latin word \sli\ would be read as in mishap. 

223a. "Why does the third conjugation never receive the z 
in the future? Ans. Because every barytone future has the 2, 
either actually or virtually, immediately before the a, as vor t ou, 
ypa^co, aiio : for the •*• is composed of n and x, and the H of K 
and S ; but as the z is composed, not of a and 2, but of 2 and 
A, the future could not have the z, lest the A should virtually 
(Suva^ft) be found immediately before the a." This passage is 
particularly valuable, because it cannot have been corrupted to 
suit the views of transcribers after z had become dz in the modern 
languages. 

h. The confusion caused by transcribers is shown in the case 
of the evidence of Verrius Flaccus respecting z. Thus the author 
of "Living Latin," p. 42, quotes him as saying of z that "sine 
dubio muta finiatur;" whilst according to Schneider his words 
are "ut sine muta finiatur." 

c. The Greek z replaces the Hebrew T zajin (as in n*}T zara, 
St. Matt. i. 3), which is referred to English z in three German, 
one French, and three English versions of the Hebrew alphabet 
in my possession. JProf. Beleke" informs me that Ewald assigns 
1 D as its power. 



NOTES. 73 

224a. z has become English dzh in a few words, as zealous; 
zinz^6er ginger; a replacement which is found in Persian. In 
Sclavonic words originally Greek, it has been replaced by English 
zi, shi, zhi, and Ulii. 

b. Marius Victorinus (if correctly edited) would have [z] repre- 
sented by [ds] when written with Latin letters (Schn. p. 377), 
and among the moderns, Eichhoff, Bopp, Rapp, Lipsius, Scheller, 
Schneider, and the Portroyal Grammar, give precedence to the 
D. This is partly justified by the Sanscrit parallels of Greek, 
that of Zj-sis having English dzh, and that of myzo English tsh. 
But the parallel of daizon has cerebral s; the Sanscrit ras to 
ring, corresponds to the Greek Rhoizos a loud noise; and STAC to 
sting gave rise to stizo. z seems also to represent the Hebrew 
¥ (§ 214) in part, as in AZEchES, pyy, with a prefix. 

c. The following extract from the Portroyal Latin Grammar 
contains the views of those who believe that z represents DS. 
" It had something of the d, but with a very soft pronunciation ; 
Mezentius as if Medsentius, &c. Hence it is" [not necessarily] 
"that the Dorians changed this letter into sd . . . not that the z 
was equivalent to $§ . . . but by reason of a kind of transposition 
or metathesis; both Flaccus and Longus observing, that as the 
x began with a c, the z ought to begin with d; so that all the 
double letters end with s. Yet Erasmus and Ramus pretend the 
contrary, and Sextus Empiricus" [in the second century] "en- 
deavors to prove against the torrent of " [modern] "grammarians, 
that z was as much equivalent to $5 as to 8$ ... . Be that as it 
may, the Eolians also changed the 8 into z, as £a6a%'heiv for 
diaSatosiv, to calumniate, from whence they took %a6ohos (for 
SiaSo^oj devil), which we meet with in St. Cyprian and St. 
Hilary." 

d. The transposition alluded to is sufficiently common, as be- 
tween cs and sc in tftfjoj and viscus mistletoe; the English ask 
or acs, and the Anglo-saxon axian; between AleCSandretta and 
SCanderoon; the German borst and Dutch brost; the Freneh 
regne (in which the guttural follows) and the Latin regnum; 
and perhaps the Welsh or Irish tarv (a in fat, r trilled, v as in 
English) and the Latin tavrus a bull. The Latin words ALEX- 

7 



74 NOTES\ 

ANDER and marmor (marble, §§ 160, 215) have taken the forms 
aleksnadr and mramor in Russian. 

e. The Italian ds is probably tolerably ancient, and being in- 
compatible with the Greek sd, there may have been a tendency 
to replace the latter with the former; but this has nothing to do 
with the acknowledged power of Greek z (§ 19) in Greek words, 
and it occurs in no others, sd occurs in Italian, as in sdegno 
(SDfeNJo) indignation, in which s is pure. 

225a. "When the Greek z more nearly approximates to the 
sound of 08, either this is preserved in the Latin transcriptions, 
as in Mesdentius, Sdepherus, for Mezentius, Zephyrus, or the 8 
is assimilated to the cr." — Donaldson's Varronianus, p. 218. 

b. Buttmann (Dr. Robinson's ed., Andover, 1839), whilst he 
assigns ds to z, admits that "in the earlier periods" it was sd; 
and Ktihner admits it in certain adverbs, as a^raCt for d^j/a^t . 

230a. The view combated in the text, which is founded upon 
a peculiarity of English, appears in Donaldson's Varronianus, 
where it is asserted that "the dental and guttural, when combined 
with [English] y, . . . converge in the sound of our j or sh." 
That is, the Latin dj might become dzh, although this would be 
as unlikely as the same change in German or Spanish. 

b. The Latin J does not lengthen syllables by position, nor do 
the ancient grammarians enumerate it among the " double letters." 

235. Martial uses the word iota as in English, for something 
very small; and the English jot is the same word corrupted by 
misunderstanding the initial letter, which is the smallest in the 
Hebrew alphabet. By perverting the character [j] and [o], the 
word jot has become perverted from yote. There is, however, 
nothing to prevent any one from going anew to the Latin for the 
correct word; since Dr. Johnson set the example of corrupting 
his vernacular by introducing a host of words believed to be 
Latin, instead of going to the living languages and dialects most 
nearly allied to English. 

242a. "non inter M et N medium sonat UNQVAM 
NONNUNQVAM et similia, sed inter N et G." — Marius 
Victorinus. 

b. "INTER litteras N et G est alta vis, ut in nomine 



NOTES. 75 

ANGVIS et ANGARI et ANCORAE et INCREPAT et 

INCURRIT et INGENUUS— in omnibus enim his non 
verum N, sed adulterinum ponitur." — JSfigidius Figulus, 
Schneider, i. 316. Had [o] represented a palatal sound in 
ingenuus and longinus, the n would necessarily have remained 
pure. §268. 

c. In Edwards and Taylor's translation (as it purports to he) 
of Runner' s Greek Grammar, the correct term guttural is replaced 
hy palatal, although it is admitted of y, x, %, that "the Germans 
pronounce these letters from the throat." It is something new 
to have the same consonant formed at a different place by different 
nations, as if there could be a palatal b or a guttural t. Never- 
theless, if the view which these literary gentlemen take of [fy] 
is correct, the first of two gamma characters does represent a 
palatal, namely, that of the English [dzli] in judge, because they 
say that u y before the palatals y, x, %, % . . . is sounded like ng 
in angel/' which is neither the sound in angle, nor in hanger, 
but that in range, so that the first gamma represents dzh, turning 
afys-kos into a-dzh-y?kos, and "Kd^vft, not into the Latin larynx, 
but into the French sounds larunndjcs. In the same work to so 
the power of ei (in receive? height? wetght?) is assigned, to qv 
that of ou in you (correctly assigned to ov by Dr. Robinson), and 
to s that which belongs to av, and this is converted into the vowel 
in laud. If this is an honest translation, it is difficult to conceive 
why Kiihner should not know a vowel from a dipthong, or adduce 
as a dipthong a vocal effect which is neither a vowel nor a dipthong. 
Similar errors disfigure the Latin Grammar of Andrews and 
Stoddard. 

270. " K penitus supervacua est." — Priscian. "Kqvae 
nonnullis superflua videtur." — Sergius. " K littera non 
scribitur nisi ante A." — Probus. (See note 290.) 

276. "cum dico oBtinuit . . . avres magis avdiunt P." — 
Quinctilian. 

283. [lacrima] is found in the Carpensian manuscript of 
Virgil. The inscriptive forms are taken from Manutius, who, 
although he does not cite a single one with [y], recommends the 
word to be spelt with this character because it is so spelt in 



76 



NOTES. 



Greek ! It is probable that many similar barbarisms have been 
introduced into Latin orthography by officious copyists wedded to 
that useless minimum of etymology which may be preserved in a 
false orthography. The word in question was too common not to 
have become naturalized. 

290. "K PERSPICUUM EST LITTERA QVOD VACARE POSSIT, 
ET Q SIMILIS, NAMQVE EADEM VIS IN UTRAQVE EST." — Term- 
tiailUS. " Q . . . MULTI ILLAM EXCLUSERUNT, QVONIAM NIHIL 
ALIUD SIT QVAM C ET V, ET NON MINUS POSSIT SCRIBI QVIS 
PER C ET V ET I ET S."— Vel. Long. « QVIS QVIDAM PER C VIS 
SCRIBUNT, QVONIAM SUPERVACUAM ESSE Q LITTERAM PUTANT." 

— Terent. Scaurus. "nigidius figulus in commentariis suis 
NEC K posuit pro Q, NEC X." — Marius Victorinus. The proper 
reading seems to require NEC for pro. 

298. The use of [h] is somewhat irregular in the transcription 
of Biblical names, being correct in Qedemah, representing Ch in 
Zohar, and useless in Abidah. If it can properly replace Ch in 
Zohar, it might also be placed in Phichol. 



The entomologist Fabricius correctly Latinized the German name 
Hiibner into hybnerus, and Cayenne into cajenna; and some 
English naturalists properly represent the to of English names by 
the Latin character. In the following examples, the first column 
represents the original, the second an incorrect, and the third the 
corrected form of certain names, chiefly genera of plants : — 
Banks banksia (note 270) 

Colebrooke colebrookia (6 syllab. !) 

Beatson beatsonia (5 " ) 

Stewart stewartia 

Goodenough goodenoviae 

Wilkes wilkesia (note 270) 

Buttner byttneria 



BANXIA. 

COLBRUCIA. 

BITSONIA. 

STJUARTIA. 

GUDENOFIAE. 

VILCSIA. 

BYTNERIA. 



ERRATA 



Page 45, end of line 12, for x-Kvit^ read xtest^. 
Page 48, line 13, for NG read Ng. 



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1 



